Main Takeaways
Binance’s CEO, Richard Teng, spent time with the community on X Spaces on June 12, 2024, answering questions in celebration of Binance reaching 200 million registered users.
Under Teng’s leadership, Binance continues to strengthen compliance and further user protection to support broader crypto adoption and mainstream understanding.
Binance’s approach to regulation and innovative technology drives its mission towards achieving one billion users while advancing the ecosystem's growth and user trust.
What follows is a summary of Binance CEO Richard Teng’s answers to some of the questions he received from users during an AMA on June 12, 2024, which was held in celebration of Binance reaching 200 million registered users.
Please note that this transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
On Binance Reaching 200 Million Users
What key factors have driven Binance’s rapid growth from 100 million to 200 million users in just over two years?
Richard Teng: "Let me first thank all of you — each and every one of you. You make this happen. For the first 100 million users, it took us about five years, and the second 100 million users took us about 26 months. This just goes to show the rapid pace of crypto as the speed of adoption continues to improve. We don’t take this trust and confidence lightly. Binance will always remain a user-first, user-focused organization.
"We are deeply committed and rooted in understanding the products and services that you need, to ensure that your assets are properly secured, and to maintain your confidence in us. I suspect we’re going to move even faster towards the next hundred million. I think the broader environment helps — in terms of new regulations giving greater clarity to crypto. You have more new use cases coming through too. And with institutional investors and the approval of ETFs, you see more liquidity coming through."
On Digital Transformation and AI
How does Binance plan to leverage AI to enhance its platform and benefit its users?
Richard Teng: "The usage of AI is something that all organizations will have to embrace because it just makes things much faster and more efficient. On the organizational front, we’re always looking at ways to be much more effective, whether in terms of engagement with the community, marketing, customer service, or compliance.
"You might not see this directly, but a lot of those engagements are starting to make use of AI, and we’re experimenting with how to bring much more efficiency within the system. Even in terms of projects that we assess, there are a lot more AI projects coming through. Those are things that we assess as well to see how we can be proactively supportive of the ecosystem. So we will continue on that front. Again, it’s a journey. We’re looking at ways to improve. We’re all learning together."
On Crypto Regulations and Mainstream Adoption
You’ve been posting a lot about regulations lately. How do you see this regulatory shift impacting the mainstream adoption of crypto?
Richard Teng: "Like it or not, that’s the direction of travel, and you’ll see more and more rules coming out. But to me, that’s a positive. For crypto to go mainstream, unlike early adopters that trust crypto and embrace it, the mass majority needs to see regulations to ensure assets and trust are protected. The clarity given by regulators is crucial. Incidentally, we’re received regulatory approvals in 18 different jurisdictions, which is the most of any crypto exchange. That should give comfort to the community on many fronts. As we continue this journey, you’ll see more institutions coming in. We’re going to see a lot of mainstreaming and a lot of institutional investors. We are still very early."
On Token Listings and Performance
Can you elaborate on Binance’s approach to token listings and how you ensure the reliability and performance of listed tokens?
Richard Teng: "We place a lot of emphasis on getting it right in terms of tokens listed on Binance. If you look at our past performance and reliability, for the projects that are listed on Binance, there are no tokens with negative ROI this year thus far. This is not the case for other platforms. When you look at the 180-day all-time high ROI for tokens listed, ours is about 180%, which is the best performing.
"This doesn’t happen by chance; it happens because we take this extremely seriously. The team takes this responsibility very seriously. You don’t see things like rug pulls with us. Reliability is very high, and there are no incidents with tokens listed on Binance. But this is an overall effort of the entire team, including our listing team and everyone involved in the whole process, to try to get it right. There will be instances where we might get it wrong, so we cannot say never, but we try our best to ensure that we maintain the faith and make sure that the community is strong with us on this."
On Strategy and Adaptation
Has Binance had to change its strategy, and if so, how have you adapted and what does this look like moving forward?
Richard Teng: "We’re going to celebrate our seven-year anniversary next month. When Binance started, the landscape was very different. It was a product embraced by retail, but institutions, banks, and financial entities thought crypto was a scam that would go away. Regulators were not paying attention, thinking it was a passing fad.
"Fast forward to now, one-third of global regulators are regulating this space, and more are developing rules and regulations. Products such as ETFs are being approved in multiple jurisdictions, including Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, and others. The total crypto market capitalization is about $2.5 to $2.6 trillion, with Bitcoin alone at around $1.3 trillion. Crypto has become too big to ignore and is not going away.
"We all have to adapt quickly, especially in crypto, where things develop rapidly. Given the direction of travel, we have to ensure that we serve you with the best products and services and maintain a reliable platform for all users. Over and above that, we have to ensure global and local deployment in a compliant fashion, aligning our interests with regulators to protect user assets, rights, and interests."
On Enhancing User Protection and ID Verification
How is Binance enhancing its KYC and identity verification processes to protect users? Are there any new measures or initiatives being introduced in this area?
Richard Teng: "This is an area that will continue to improve. In many areas where regulations do not yet exist, we introduce measures because we believe they are useful and protect our users. For example, our SAFU fund (Secure Asset Fund for Users) was introduced even without regulatory requirements, because user asset protection is paramount. Similarly, our responsible trading program was created to ensure our users trade responsibly, despite the lack of regulations requiring it. Our proof of reserves initiative is another example where we aim to push industry standards.
"We hope these practices are adopted by other players because they are good for users. In the area of KYC and identity verification, especially with the increasing threat of identity theft and deepfakes due to AI, we’re continually enhancing our security measures. Our world-class security team, which includes many reputable white hats, is focused on these issues. We aim to be best in class, rolling out initiatives to safeguard and protect users while ensuring our UI/UX remains user-friendly and intuitive."
Final Thoughts
Could you share some final words with our community? Any suggestions, advice, or thoughts for everyone who has been supporting Binance?
Richard Teng: "First of all, let me end by thanking everyone here. Thank you for attending, listening, and, most importantly, for continuing to support us. Keep the community strong and keep your feedback coming. We are here for you, and we’re only here because of you. Your feedback helps us improve our products, services, and features. Feel free to send your suggestions our way; we’ll evaluate them and continue to improve.
"We’ve reached 200 million users in 26 months, compared to the first 100 million, which took nearly five years. Hopefully, the next 100 million will come in an even shorter period. We are working towards reaching 1 billion users, and it will take everyone’s effort to get there. It will benefit everyone, so let’s stay united and continue to support the industry and each other. We will continue to be here for you."
You can listen to a recording of the AMA in full here.
Further Reading
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