The exchange's former CEO, Changpeng Zhao, previously founded Fusion Systems in Shanghai in 2005; The company built high-frequency trading systems for brokers. He joined Blockchain.info in 2013 as the third member of the cryptocurrency wallet team. He also worked as CTO at OKCoin, a spot trading platform between fiat and digital assets, for less than a year.[3]
The company was founded in China, but moved its servers and headquarters from China to Japan before the Chinese government's ban on cryptocurrency trading in September 2017.[4] As of March 2018, the company established offices in Taiwan.[3]
Binance Coin (BNB) was first launched with an ICO (Initial Coin Offering) held on June 26 - July 3, 2017. A total of 100,000,000 $BNB were released at the first launch. Binance Coin #BNB✅ is a new generation blockchain model developed by Binance company, serving with a BEP2-based infrastructure model.[5]
It was the largest cryptocurrency exchange with a market value of $1.3 billion as of January 2018.[6]
In March 2018, Binance announced its intention to open an office in Malta following stricter regulations in Japan and China.[7] In April 2018, Binance signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Bermuda Government.[8] Months later, a similar memorandum of understanding was signed with the Malta Stock Exchange to develop a platform for trading security tokens.[9] In 2019, the company announced Binance Jersey, an independent entity from the main Binance.com exchange, with the aim of expanding its influence in Europe. The Jersey-based exchange offered fiat-cryptocurrency pairs including the Euro and British pound.[10] With the statement made by Binance, the Jersey Stock Exchange ended its cryptocurrency investment transactions, especially Euro and British pound, on October 31, 2020. Until November 9, 2020, users were able to make purchases, sales and withdrawals within the stock exchange. The complete closure of the stock exchange occurred on November 30, 2020.[11]
In August 2018, Binance, along with three other major exchanges, raised $32 million for its stablecoin project. The goal of the stablecoin idea is to provide a stable cryptocurrency despite the fluctuating prices of Bitcoin and other popular digital assets.[12]
In January 2019, Binance announced a partnership with Israel-based payment processor Simplex to enable cryptocurrency purchases with debit and credit cards, including Visa and Mastercard. Purchases are subject to Simplex's local bank policies and are limited to Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Ripple's XRP.[13]
On May 7, 2019, Binance announced that it was the victim of a "large-scale security breach" in which hackers stole 7,000 Bitcoins worth approximately US$40 million.[14] Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said hackers "used a variety of techniques, including phishing, viruses and other attacks" and structured their transactions "to bypass our existing security controls."[15] Binance halted further withdrawals and deposits but allowed trading to continue. The site has committed to compensate customers through its safe asset fund.
On 21 February 2020, the Malta Financial Services Authority issued a public statement responding to media reports referring to Binance as a 'Malta-based cryptocurrency' company. The statement stated that Binance "is not authorized by the MFSA to operate in the cryptocurrency space and is therefore not subject to the regulatory oversight of the MFSA." The MFSA added that it was “assessing whether Binance has any activities in Malta that do not fall within the scope of regulatory oversight.”[16]
Binance also acquired India's largest Cryptocurrency Exchange WazirX and also launched Matic Network's IEO via launchpad.[6]
On October 28, 2020, Forbes staff published leaked documents alleging that Binance and Changpeng Zhao (also known as CZ) created an elaborate corporate structure designed to deliberately deceive US regulators and secretly profit from cryptocurrency investors.[17]
Binance announced on December 29, 2020 that it achieved a 46% growth rate in its corporate customer base in 2020.[18]
On November 21, 2023, the Binance exchange was fined $4.3 billion by the US Department of Justice due to sanctions violations. As part of the settlement between the Binance exchange and the US Department of Justice, the exchange's CEO Changpeng Zhao resigned and Zhao pleaded guilty to the crimes against him. The new CEO of the stock exchange was Richard Teng.
