On January 10, He Yi, co-founder and CMO of Binance and head of Binance Labs, participated in the "POW'ER 2023 Hong Kong Web3 Innovators Summit" hosted by the blockchain media Marsbit. With the theme of "How to face the dilemma of Web3 today", he had a wonderful dialogue with Marsbit founder Wang Feng on the development of Binance and the current status and future prospects of the industry.
At the beginning of the conversation, when talking about business management issues, He Yi shared that the current main concern of Binance's core management is Binance's organizational structure, how to build a "long-lasting" system, and focusing on solving two problems: business health and organizational health. At the same time, the Binance team is also expanding. On the one hand, we recruit top talents from all over the world to assist the management team; on the other hand, we are also looking for young people with potential who meet Binance's values, but "integrity" is still Binance's most basic requirement. He Yi believes that only by forming an excellent management team can we ensure the health and long-term development of the organization, including spending time cultivating young people.
When asked about his views on a series of negative events in the cryptocurrency industry in 2022, He Yi said that every industry has its own cycle, just like the development of the Internet industry, which may experience a phase of explosion, bubble, trough and then climb. Binance hopes to find the right direction in the industry and help more ordinary people.
He Yi also gave suggestions for Web3 entrepreneurs. She believes that the success of an enterprise or project is inseparable from three reasons: improving efficiency, reducing costs, or finding new application scenarios. The outside world thinks that you can make quick money in Web3, but whether it is public financing or attracting users to buy coins, it is overdrawing personal reputation and exchanging reputation for money. She pointed out that in the Web3 industry, you must have faith, and making good products, innovation, and solving problems are the right way.
As for how Binance sees itself in the industry? He Yi said that Binance's corporate culture values "humility". Our team always focuses on self-improvement, remains humble, respects the market, and continues to promote innovation. On the other hand, Binance also emphasizes "user-focused", always insisting on listening to and understanding user feedback and voices. After the FTX incident, although Binance was attacked by a specific group, I believe time will prove everything.
Despite Binance's current achievements, He Yi shared that Binance is optimistic about the industry, so it has participated in all major tracks in the industry, including CEX, DEX, and non-custodial wallets. In terms of internal innovation, Binance also strongly encourages internal competition within the team to maintain the team's self-innovation, and also helps improve the industry through investment, because Binance believes that only when the industry improves can we all benefit.
As for the topic of regulation that the outside world is concerned about, He Yi pointed out that Binance actively embraces regulation and believes that regulation can help the industry develop, so we actively communicate with regulatory agencies to help them understand the industry; our compliance team has also reached 750 people, actively responding to the law enforcement needs of law enforcement agencies, and organizing multiple law enforcement training courses. At the same time, Binance is also the platform with the most licenses or permits, including 14 countries/regions such as Abu Dhabi, Dubai, South Africa, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Lithuania, Cyprus, Kazakhstan, Australia and New Zealand.
Regarding the issue of financial auditing, He Yi also clarified the essential difference between "on-chain reserve asset verification" and "financial auditing of listed companies" that the outside world and the media had previously understood. She emphasized that Binance is willing to accept audit companies to conduct on-chain asset verification. At present, it is not a question of Binance's willingness, but whether the audit company can complete this work.
He then talked about the "Industry Recovery Plan" and investment topics previously initiated by Binance. He Yi said that the "Industry Recovery Plan" is not an investment or charity fund, but a recovery plan to help companies/projects in financial difficulties overcome difficulties. At present, other third-party participants have invested a total of approximately 130 million US dollars, and Binance also has two exchanges and two projects under observation; in terms of investment in Labs, Binance adopts a conservative strategy, and will evaluate the team, innovation, and price in investment. Binance also pays attention to the layout of the entire industry, and even in the security data category that the outside world pays less attention to, Binance will participate.
At the end of the conversation, He Yi also pointed out that Web3 is like the Internet industry in the past. A few years ago, no one could imagine that a mobile phone could be used to participate in remote meetings. In the future, Web3 will become an infrastructure, but as for how Web3 will be realized in the future, it depends on the efforts of everyone at the moment to build it together. Change is not achieved overnight, but is built step by step.
You can watch the complete conversation with He Yi here.