Within the span of 4 years, Binance has grown to become the world’s leading blockchain ecosystem and is currently operating one of the largest digital asset exchanges. In 2020 alone, Binance Exchange recorded $3.88 billion in average daily trading volume, an increase of 36% from the previous year. The 24-hour all-time-high spot trading was $15 billion in 2020, which is triple the value recorded from the year before. From his humble beginnings, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) led the company to its current success with great leadership, vision and dedication.
Here at Binance, we pride ourselves for having an interconnected blockchain ecosystem that includes key infrastructure pillars such as a Trust Wallet, CoinMarketCap, the NFT marketplace and many more. We are also extremely engaged in the future of blockchain technologies and are therefore investing in many promising projects and organizations, including the community-driven Binance Smart Chain which now boasts the world’s largest transaction volume in the DeFi space. At the end of 2020, there were 60 projects using the Binance Smart Chain and 3,000 BNB staked by Binance Smart Chain validators. Now, there are 800+ projects with 3.25M unique addresses at Binance Smart Chain. The all-time high daily transaction total is over 13M which is almost 700% more than Ethereum. With dedicated investment from Binance, the ecosystem has achieved tremendous growth over time.
At the heart of Binance’s operation is our collective vision to increase the freedom of money for all. We believe that everyone should have the freedom to access, spend, own, store, and earn money. Through our interconnected blockchain ecosystem, Binance has increased the freedom of money for millions of users from 180+ countries and regions. We are also constantly upgrading ourselves in order to continue serving and empowering our millions of users from nearly all parts of the world. Binance Academy, our free educational platform, recorded 4.7 million total users in 2020. Aside from ensuring that Binance products and services are accessible to as many users, we’re also committed to provide the best possible customer support to all our users if the need arises. 80% of customer service tickets are solved within 24 hours and the customer satisfaction rate is 95%.
Due to the immense success achieved over the past few years, Binance’s success has allowed it to spread the freedom of money, and all of its benefits, to less privileged individuals globally. Through Binance Charity, we aim to leverage blockchain technology in our philanthropic initiatives with the hope of ending all forms of poverty and inequality, and advancing sustainable development. In March 2020, Binance Charity launched ‘Crypto Against Covid’. This funding campaign has been very successful and exceeded expectations, collecting $15.5 million USD of cryptocurrencies which benefitted 1.1 million end-beneficiaries. 2 million PPEs were donated to hundreds of hospitals in 26 countries. Other ongoing projects include the emergency appeal for Haiti earthquake relief and ‘Binance Lunch for Children’.
Clearly, Binance has gone above and beyond anyone’s expectations of a cryptocurrency exchange company. With a culture that encourages its employees to think outside the box, it is no wonder that Binance has achieved its success at an impressively fast speed. With Bitcoin and crypto causing a globally-recognized rethinking of the global financial system, Binance, with its innovations and user-first philosophy, was perfectly positioned to become an influential force within an otherwise disoriented industry.
One of the most prominent ways in which Binance went against the norms, and proved to be ahead of its times, was the structure of its company. Unlike traditional firms, Binance has been operating without an established headquarters over the past four years. Early on in our journey, Binance faced some unique challenges as a fast-rising new crypto exchange, wherein our survival depended on us being flexible and adaptable beyond what’s expected of a regular company. Having grown into a global brand in blockchain, remote work has been the norm for hundreds of Binance staff members scattered all over the world, even during the pre-Covid-19 era. This structure proved to be advantageous for us when the Covid-19 pandemic unexpectedly hits. Unlike other companies, Binance has thrived under a remote, decentralized system and the transition was thus much less daunting. The company has already invested in the necessary tools, software and equipment required for efficient remote work. The company values and having a culture of constant communication also greatly aided in Binance’s success in a remote organization setting.
Even though Binance has been functioning as a decentralized organization, Binance has plans to establish physical headquarters in the near future. Over recent months, Binance has faced intense regulatory scrutiny, in part because regulators are confused by our company’s organizational structure and processes. As Binance works towards becoming a fully-regulated financial institution, there would be certain compromises which we have to make and one of them would be bowing to pressure for physical headquarters. Since regulators around the world understand and are comfortable with companies having headquarters, that is the standard structure that we are gradually shifting towards. However, Binance remains open to providing remote working options for our staff members where possible. As the past year has shown, remote working could improve diversity and inclusion, while also maintaining productivity.
Moreover, despite what the recent reports might suggest, Binance is fully committed to being 100% compliant. We have proactively made changes to our products and services over the past few months in order to ensure that Binance is not going against any local regulations and could remain serving our users in the long-run. These actions include proactively restricting derivative product offerings in Hong Kong, enhancing due diligence policies when it comes to KYC (Know-Your-Customer) and AML (Anti-Money laundering), and growing our international compliance team by 500% this year alone. As the world’s leading blockchain company and ecosystem provider, Binance wants to facilitate mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies and more, and we believe that regulation is the way forward.
