A Year of Building: New Products and Functionalities of 2022
Main Takeaways
2022 marked another year of innovation and building in the Binance ecosystem.
At Binance, we believe in creating things that just work — simple, easy-to-use products that fit into people’s everyday lives.
From building new bridges between crypto and the traditional financial system to introducing a brand new, Web3-focused newsfeed, we spent this year focused on creating real-life value for our users.
Discover the biggest developments in Binance’s products and services over the past year.
This year, in typical Binancian fashion, our teams scattered across the world continued to build products centered around one theme: you, the user. From regular updates to the Binance app user experience – including a robust crypto content aggregator – all the way to intuitive trading and NFT products that anyone can use, we clocked in long hours to make sure that our customers enjoy the most streamlined access to the world of digital finance at every entry point. After all, it is real value and ease of use that will underpin the mass adoption of Web3. We hope you enjoyed using our latest products as much as we enjoyed building them.
Real-World Use Cases
Every shiny, new invention threatening to change the status quo faces two questions: what is it, and how does it affect me? Many users exploring Web3 for the first time struggle to gain a solid foothold in the space. Either the use cases are too abstract — essentially, vaporware — or there is a solid use case that is buried underneath a complicated user interface and steep learning curve.
On our end, we believe in building things that just work: simple, easy-to-use products that fit into everyday life and do exactly what they say on the tin. Here are some highlights of the best Web3 products and services we made or improved this past year.
Binance Card
We have recently launched the Binance Card, our official crypto debit card, in three new markets: Ukraine (via our Refugee Program), Argentina, and Bahrain.
We’re also testing the card in three other major markets, including Brazil, Colombia, other GCC countries, and more. With a Binance Card, users can spend crypto directly from their Binance wallet with either Visa or Mastercard-supported merchants, depending on the country of residence.
With the Binance Card, you can enjoy up to 8% cashback on purchases. Essentially, you can pay for everyday goods and services in seconds without going through the trouble of converting your crypto to fiat.
What’s more, we do have ongoing promotions with rewards that are stackable with the cashback benefit that comes with the card. Do check out the card landing page for the latest promotions.
Binance Pay
We followed up Binance Pay’s groundbreaking launch in 2021 with even more additions to our diverse ecosystem of crypto-friendly merchants.
This year, we added 7,983 new merchants and partners into Binance Pay along with support bringing the total number of supported cryptocurrencies to over 70. New additions include BNX, BSW, and COTI, to name a few.
Binance Pay now allows users in 70 different markets to send fiat using their crypto assets. We also added a Trust Wallet integration, launched ride-hailing booking services, and, in over 100 countries, rolled out crypto mobile top-ups via the Binance app.
Going offline, we brought crypto payments on all refreshments to over 460,000 attendees at this year’s Primavera Sound, an annual music festival held in Barcelona.
Additional notable partners and use cases from this year include:
Crypto hotel bookings in UAE, including world-famous JA Hotels and the Palazzo Versace.
Shopping at leading supermarket chains in Ukraine (Varus) and Bahrain (Lulu).
Filling up your gas tank at all WOG stations in Ukraine.
Buying a virtual sim card in over 122 destinations with Yesim.
Purchasing event tickets with Entertix, the number one ticketing platform in Romania.
Travelling via tokenized airline tickets using TravelX in the LATAM region.
Sending crypto gifts and tips on Bolt, a Web3-powered live streaming platform.
Binance Marketplace
The new Marketplace section on the Binance app, which you could’ve bumped into by scrolling up on the homepage, allows users to shop with crypto, discover the latest Binance Pay offers, top up their mobile phones, and even access DeFi services.
With pandemic restrictions easing up around the globe, we built a dedicated travel section that covers all the basic components of your next dream vacation or business trip, including hotel and flight reservation and much more.
Making Web3 Accessible to All
Being user-focused is a core value that’s instilled into every employee from the first day they join Binance. What would the user want? This is a question we ask every time we design a new product or update an existing one.
This year, we dedicated a large share of our efforts to projects that simplify Web3 for as broad as possible range of users, spanning all levels of crypto experience and technological sophistication. We aim to demystify our industry and make it approachable for anyone, one product at a time, – be it features designed for visual impairments or NFT partnerships that elevate the fan experience for communities in and outside of Web3.
Binance Feed
Live crypto news, top influencer insights, and over 400 educational articles on topics related to crypto and blockchain — Binance Feed is an essential update for anyone who enjoys Web3 content. Since its launch, Binance Feed has provided a seamless platform for more than 1 million daily active users and some 1000 and counting, Web3-focused content creators.
Through Binance Feed, we’ve delivered a spam-free content experience that touches every corner of Web3, whether you are looking for professional trading tips or the latest breakthroughs in blockchain technology.
Colorblind trading
According to the National Eye Institute, roughly 300 million people in the world are color-vision deficient. Moreover, the most common color deficiencies involve shades of red and green, which are the two most crucial colors on a typical trading interface.
To ensure our trading interface can be used by anyone, we introduced a new color-vision deficient palette that replaces the traditional red/green palette with a more vision-friendly blue/orange configuration.
Identity verification (know-your-customer / KYC)
Completing the identity verification process is a vital step for any user entering our ecosystem for the first time. Over the years, we continually updated our verification measures to ensure a seamless onboarding experience for new users that is, at the same time, compliant with the latest regulatory requirements in different regions.
In nine new countries, we’ve integrated our systems with government databases and trusted service providers to allow users to verify their identity without uploading documents. For example, users based in MENA and LATAM get a significantly faster verification experience due to strategic partnerships we’ve made with regional vendors.
Furthermore, we’ve made several tweaks to simplify the user flow, added support for 25 types of identity documents, and introduced a real-time photo quality assessment that speeds up the ID verification flow.
The fan experience
2022 was an exhilarating year on the intersection of fandom and cutting-edge technology. We extended the borders of Web3 into a range of subcultures, including football, Formula 1, and the music industry.
In the world of football, we partnered with one of the greatest players of all time — Cristiano Ronaldo — to deliver the first of many NFT drops.
On the racing circuit, we started our first-ever F1 collaboration with the launch of the ALPINE Binance Fan Token. ALPINE token holders are entitled to exclusive benefits such as voting privileges, meet and greets with team members, and more.
Binance NFT
We’ve gone above and beyond this year to deliver an unmatched experience on Binance NFT, opening our doors to over 600 thousand weekly active users, 2.5 million listed NFTs, and top-tier collaborations with some of the biggest names in sports, music, and entertainment.
When we launched Binance NFT back in 2021, our ecosystem was lacking some functionalities that later proved to be important to a seamless user experience. We heard your feedback, and as usual, we responded promptly – with a complete overhaul of our NFT marketplace.
Speaking of other major improvements to the user experience, collectors on Binance NFT can now explore assets across multiple platforms, including OpenSea, earn rewards via our Ape NFT Staking Program and Subscription Mechanism, getting a fair shot at purchasing rare and unique NFTs.
And while our platform has been the home of numerous big-name projects and star-studded collaborations, we believe opportunities in Web3 should be open to anyone, regardless of their NFT experience or renown. Today, any verified Binance user with at least two followers can start minting their own creations on Binance NFT. Since the minting update, we’ve had around 100 thousand NFTs minted that have generated over 40 million USDT in trading volume.
These are just a few highlights of the many upgrades we implemented on Binance NFT this year. For the full breakdown, you can read our end-of-year recap.
More and Better Ways to Earn
Building an amazing trading experience isn’t the only thing we do at Binance: we also offer an expansive suite of income-generating products, from staking to savings. This year, we took steps to simplify some of our most popular Binance Earn products, packaging Flexible and Locked Savings into one product and introducing a crypto cashback program.
Spend to Earn
Our crypto cashback program, Spend to Earn, is live with over 150 merchants and growing. Binance users can receive up to 5% BUSD cashback directly into their wallet when they shop at participating merchants via any preferred payment method. What’s more, users with a Binance Card can enjoy up to 8% BUSD cashback.
Simple Earn
We’ve combined Flexible Savings, Locked Savings, and Locked Staking products into a one-stop platform called Simple Earn. Users can deposit and earn rewards from any of the 339 supported tokens (as of December 2022) on flexible or locked terms.
Investing and Trading
While Binance has come to be known as much more than just a crypto exchange, we’ve continued to remain committed to improving our users’ trading experience. From just a simple, barebones original interface of 2017, Binance’s dashboard has evolved into one of the most advanced retail trading interfaces in crypto, and, arguably, the entire finance sector.
However, unless you’re a die-hard Binance fan, there are trading features you’ve likely overlooked this year. Take a moment to discover some of our new tools and see what you’ve missed.
Binance Futures
Binance Futures, a service that is only available in select regions, came up with a slew of new features this year.
For starters, traders can now use USDT to deal in European-style options contracts for BTC, ETH, and BNB. We also reduced latency for high-frequency traders with the launch of our Portfolio Margin Program, which consolidates the margin balances of USDⓈ-M Futures, COIN-M Futures, and Margin accounts.
Beginner traders looking to test the waters should consider using our new Mock Trading simulation platform. It’s a test environment that allows you to practice real-time crypto trading and make as many mistakes as you need without risking any of your capital. For the experienced users, we’ve added four new user-friendly tools that are popular with the pros, including Grid Trading, Time Weighted Average Price (TWAP), Advanced TP/SL, and Multi-Assets Mode.
Auto-Invest
Auto-Invest, launched in 2021, remains one of our most popular investment products, especially for users who have a lower risk appetite and prefer a dollar-cost average (DCA) approach to growing their crypto holdings. This year, we’ve made three key updates to Auto-Invest:
Index-Linked Plans: track and automatically invest in the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.
Portfolio Plans: build a multi-crypto portfolio that yields returns and suits your risk appetite.
Hourly Recurring cycle: get more precise in your recurring crypto purchases with new timeframes to choose from, including one, four, eight, and twelve-hour cycles.
Dual Investment
Dual Investment is a product that’s been around since 2020, and one we’ve continued to update with more features and token listings over the years. This year, we added support for 12 new altcoins (BNB, XRP, SOL, MATIC, ADA, DOT, BCH, AVAX, FTM, ALGO, ATOM, NEAR). For less experienced retail users, we launched Beginner Mode that emphasizes education and includes a step-by-step guide.
Those who already use Dual Investment frequently might be familiar with the new Auto-Compound feature, which allows you to automatically re-subscribe to positions every time a target price is reached.
Spot Grid Trading
Launched at the beginning of this year, Binance Spot Grid Trading is an advanced tool designed for advanced crypto users. If it’s your first time hearing this term, grid trading is a quantitative trading strategy that utilizes a trading bot to automate buy and sell orders. Typically, crypto traders use grid trading to profit off small price changes within a specific range.
Looking Ahead
At Binance, our motto is simple: build products the user wants. This is one of the core ingredients of our secret sauce to becoming the world’s largest crypto ecosystem. We take a meticulous approach to every aspect of the user experience — even simple tweaks like adding a new color palette.
In 2023, we’ll continue to do the same thing we’ve always done, come crypto winter, a bear market, or a record-breaking run: put our heads down and build. Even at this moment, during the holiday season, we have passionate team members working hard on exciting new features.
Stay tuned to our announcements for the latest updates in the Binance ecosystem!
For more year-end coverage, read the following:
(Blog) A Letter From Our CEO: 2022, the Year of Resilience
(Blog) 2022 Events Lookback: Party Like a Binancian