Original - Odaily
Author - Got it
2023 is destined to be a year worth remembering in the history of Crypto. With the help of many narratives such as ETF, Ordinals, AI, LSD, RWA, GameFi, Meme, DePin, etc., the alternation between bull and bear finally started, the cold winter gradually receded, and the industry began to accelerate towards a new round of growth cycle .
For Binance, 2023 is also of great significance. In this year, Binance reached a settlement with US regulators for a record-breaking US$4 billion. CZ disbanded and Richard Teng took over. The six-year-old Binance began to enter a new stage of development with a more stable attitude.
If we were to use a few keywords to describe Binance’s past year, “compliance”, “growth”, and “future” might be the most concise summary.
Keyword 1: Toward “compliance”
On November 22, a thunder broke through the Crypto market.
In the early morning of the same day, Binance officially announced that it had reached a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Office of Foreign Assets Control, and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network regarding investigations of historical registration, compliance, and sanctions issues. As part of the settlement agreement, Binance agreed. Pleaded guilty and paid more than $4 billion in fines. At the same time, CZ also issued an open letter stating that he will step down as CEO of Binance, and Richard Teng, head of Binance’s global regional market, will take over the position.
Looking back at this major incident more than a month ago, although there were some FUD voices at the time, believing that Binance and the entire industry will suffer heavy losses from this, the situation of Binance itself in the more than a month since then has also changed. Judging from the market sentiment,The general consensus in the industry ultimately fell on Binance burns itself for light and illuminates the path to compliance for latecomers.
Based on this consensus, Binances business foundation has not suffered any trauma, but has won stronger trust from the market. DeFillama data shows that since November 22, Binance has shown stable positive inflows in the direction of capital movements. As of the publication of the document, its capital reserves have reached US$820.18, an increase of nearly 20% from the date of settlement.
If the main line of development of Binance in the past six years has been to use a more radical approach to break through the market and actively strive for the top spot in various tracks such as exchanges, wallets, and investments, then with the general trend of industry compliance,Binance may have realized that the biggest challenge before it is no longer how to compete with its rivals behind it, but as an industry leader shouldering the heavy responsibility of facing supervision and leading the industry towards compliance.
In order to welcome this new development line, Binance must switch to a more stable development posture.Although the resolution of conflicts will always be accompanied by pain, in the long term, the settlement between the worlds largest cryptocurrency exchange and the worlds most influential regulatory authorities will not only help Binance resolve compliance disputes, but will also greatly Dadi promotes the improvement of Crypto regulatory strategies globally and contributes to the healthy development of the industry.
Except for the United States,Binance also made positive progress in a number of other jurisdictions in 2023.In May, Gulf Binance, a joint venture between Binance and Gulf Innova, successfully obtained the Thai digital asset operator license and plans to officially open its services next year; in August, Binance adopted a compliance stance through the license it obtained when it acquired Sakura Exchange BitCoin last year. Officially returning to the Japanese market… As of the end of 2023, Binance has been registered or authorized in 18 jurisdictions around the world.
While actively responding to the compliance requirements of regulatory agencies,Binance is also actively cooperating with law enforcement requests from judicial agencies and using its technological advantages to assist in combating various illegal activities involving crypto assets.In 2023, Binance responded to a total of 58,000 law enforcement requests, assisted judicial authorities in seizing billions of dollars in illegal funds, and disrupted multiple international criminal networks; in addition, Binance also held 120 training courses to share information about encryption with law enforcement officials. Asset expertise and popularize the positive effects of financial innovation brought by blockchain in combating illegal crime.
According to Binance’s official disclosure, Binance has invested a total of US$213 million in compliance technology, processes, and talents in 2023, an increase of 35% from the same period last year (US$158 million).
Keyword 2: Stable “growth”
In addition to resolving regulatory conflicts,Binance still maintains stable operating conditions, continues the growth trend of its core business, and has increased its layout in multiple ecological fields such as AI, social networking, and wallets.
Focus on the core trading business,Binance continues to fulfill its security-first principle.In 2023, Binance once again achieved 0 security incidents throughout the year; looking at the Merkle Tree asset reserve certificates regularly disclosed every month, Binance also proved that it can always cover all users’ funds at a 1:1 ratio; in addition, it aims to The total value of the SAFU fund established to respond to various emergencies has grown to US$1.2 billion.
CoinMarketCap data shows,Binance currently maintains a multiple advantage over its opponents in terms of trading volume in the two major markets, including spot and derivatives.According to the disclosure in the year-end report, Binance currently supports a total of 431 crypto assets and provides 1,785 different trading pairs;Binance will have over 40 million new registered users in 2023, an increase of nearly 30% compared to the end of last year, and the total number of registered users of Binance currently reaches 170 million.
For the innovation and polishing of trading products,Binance has also always taken the general needs of users as its starting point.A typical example is that at the end of the year, Binance upgraded its benchmark product Launchpool to a new Fair Mode. This model is in line with the current markets collective demand for fair distribution of tokens and allows more tokens to be distributed through hierarchical regulation. The ground is tilted towards the ordinary user end.
At the ecological level, Binance further expands its strategic layout. As ChatGPT ignited the sentiment in the AI market, Binance also launched the AI NFT generator Bicasso in conjunction with Web3 application scenarios; in order to meet the entire industry’s demand for a more attractive Web3 social experience, the Binance Square platform With continuous development, in the past year, the number of creators has increased from 1,200 to 11,000, and daily active users have increased from less than 700,000 to more than 1.6 million; the most noteworthy layout is in the wallet field, which is directly integrated into the application. Binance Web3 Wallet may take over the exchange and become Binances new main position in serving hundreds of millions of users in the future when the concept of decentralization is truly popular - He Yi has also emphasized before that Binance will increase its focus on inscriptions and With the level of emphasis and Binance’s execution efficiency, it is expected that a new wallet service focusing on the Bitcoin ecosystem will be launched soon.
Keyword 3: Sowing “the future”
If we only focus on the present, Binance may still be an exchange with excellent experience, but it may never become the leading company leading the industry forward.
In addition to strong business performance,Another key reason why Binance is widely praised is that it always focuses on the long-term development of the industry, actively incubates and supports various large and small innovations, and also takes the lead in promoting and educating Web3 concepts and visions. On top of work.
In 2023, Binance Labs will continue to maintain a high frequency of investments. Through multi-phase incubation programs, Binance Labs has provided opportunities for more than 2,000 projects to showcase themselves and directly invested in 36 of them. In the second and third quarters, Binance Labs was the most active investment force on the market. While many other VCs slowed down due to the bear market, Binance Labs did not reduce its support for start-up projects.
In terms of promoting education, in 2023, Binance, through its open learning center Binance Academy, helped 27 million learners improve their understanding of Web3 and crypto assets in 31 languages. In addition, Binance Academy’s global university tour also expanded its footprint to 45 countries, allowing 10,000 students around the world to have direct access to the charm of blockchain technology.
Fire and rebirth
2023,Binance has invested a lot of energy in improving compliance. Objectively speaking, this will inevitably have a certain impact on its business expansion. However, even under this situation, Binance still maintains a good growth trend, and this has not reduced its concern for future innovation. investment.
Such achievements have also been reflected in the investment confidence in the secondary market. As the year draws to a close, BNB has risen sharply to exceed $330. This scene more or less reminds people of BNB’s amazing performance in the last bull market, and also makes people have more thoughts about BNB’s performance in the new cycle. expect.
Based on the logic of cycle rotation, this past year may have been a lucky year for Binance. The reason why I say that,This is because Binance has caught up with the tail of the bear market and solved the biggest contradiction that restricted its development with acceptable pain. As the market warms up, the pace of competition in major tracks is expected to increase significantly. In the new competition cycle, Binance, which has been freed from the shackles of restrictions, will re-enter the battlefield with a reborn from the ashes attitude and is expected to show a stronger competitive situation.
In the new year, look forward to the full power of the Number One Institute in the Universe.
