Binance is a cryptocurrency exchange that provides a platform for trading various cryptocurrencies. As of January 2018, Binance is the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange in terms of trading volume.
Binance was founded by Changpeng Zhao, a developer who previously developed high frequency trading software. Binance was originally based in China, but later left China due to China’s increasing cryptocurrency regulations.
CEO Changpeng Zhao previously founded Fusion Systems in Shanghai in 2005; The company has set up 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 for less than a year at OKCoin, a spot trading platform between fiat and digital assets.
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. As of March 2018, the company has established offices in Taiwan.
Binance Coin (BNB) was launched for the first time in conjunction with an ICO (Initial Coin Offering) held on June 26 – July 3, 2017. A total of 100,000,000 BNB was released in the first release. Binance Coin (BNB) is a new generation blockchain model developed by Binance company, serving with a BEP2-based infrastructure model.
As of January 2018, it was the largest cryptocurrency exchange with a market cap of $1.3 billion.
In March 2018, Binance announced its intention to open an office in Malta, following stricter regulations in Japan and China. In April 2018, Binance signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Bermuda. Months later, a similar memorandum was signed with the Malta Exchange to develop a platform for trading securities tokens. 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-to-crypto currency pairs, including the euro and the British pound. With the statement made by Binance, the Jersey stock market finished its crypto money investment transactions, especially Euro and British pounds, until October 31, 2020. Until November 9, 2020, users were able to trade and withdraw in the stock market. The stock market was completely closed on 30 November 2020.
In August 2018, Binance, along with three other major exchanges, raised $32 million for the stablecoin project. The purpose of the stable coin idea is to provide a stable cryptocurrency despite the fluctuating prices of Bitcoin and other popular digital assets.
In January 2019, Binance announced that it has partnered 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.
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. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said the hackers “used a variety of techniques, including phishing, virus and other attacks”, and configured their transactions to “pass our current security controls.” Binance has stopped further withdrawals and deposits but has allowed trading to continue. The site has committed to reimburse customers through its safe-asset fund.
On February 21, 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 regulatory oversight of the MFSA.” The MFSA added that it is “evaluating whether Binance has any activities in Malta that do not fall within the scope of regulatory oversight.”
Binance has also acquired India’s largest Cryptocurrency Exchange WazirX and has also launched the Matic Network’s IEO via launchpad.
On October 28, 2020, Forbes staff published leaked documents alleging that Binance and Changpeng Zhao (also known as CZ) created an elaborate institutional structure designed to deliberately deceive US regulators and secretly profit from cryptocurrency investors.