Main Takeaways
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Just a few months after its launch, Binance has taken the world by storm as the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, growing at lightning speed.
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When people think of Binance, they think of cryptocurrency trading and transactions, its flagship products, from Binance Earn to Web3 wallet, and perhaps its memorable campaigns and collaborations.
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However, Binance is much more than all of that. Here are seven interesting facts about Binance that may not be always obvious to the public.
Over the past seven years, Binance has grown from a fledgling startup into a global powerhouse, revolutionizing the way we think about finance, trading, and the future of money. Beyond the headlines and market charts, there are stories and facts that define our uniquely Binancian journey and identity.
Here are short descriptions of seven of them. Whether you’re a seasoned trader, a crypto enthusiast, or just curious about the buzz, these seven facts will give you a fresh perspective on the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchange.
1. Zero to Hero in 165 Days
Binance was launched on 14th of July 2017, and within merely 165 days, Binance became the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world by trading volume. What has contributed to such explosive growth within a short period of time?
According to one of Binance’s co-founders, there were a number of internal and external factors that launched Binance to stardom. Yes, timing and luck were among them, yet more important was Binance’s ability to fill some gaping needs in the crypto market of the day, which was a testament to its visionary founders’ user focus, sharp instinct, and judgment.
At that time, the crypto industry had seen several bull and bear markets already, yet there was barely any cryptocurrency exchange that dedicated itself fully to the user experience. Systems were slow and customer service teams were often not responsive enough. Binance decided to do better. From early on, Binance launched an institutional-grade trading engine and a dedicated customer service team, and offered an innovative suite of cryptocurrency products geared to match users’ most immediate needs.
During Binance’s first crypto winter, several of its Initial Coin Offering (ICO) projects dropped sharply in prices, and investors asked for the return of their money. The founding team quickly decided to use the company’s treasury to return all investors’ funds and buy back the tokens at market prices, even though it dealt a serious blow to the firm’s treasury.
This was a commendable move that had never been done by any other crypto exchange before. It showed Binance’s commitment to serve its valued users. This episode became one of the most positive PR narratives in the history of Binance. Along with this positive buzz and the issues that other exchanges faced, users in Asia and elsewhere started migrating to Binance en masse.
2. From 2 to 200 Million Users in 7 Years
Binance attracted over two million users within its first six months of operation. Today, it serves more than 200 million registered users. This continuous growth is proof that Binance had gotten several things right from the get-go. Since day one, Binance has focused on user-centric approach, offering low fees and high liquidity, supporting a wide range of cryptocurrencies, strong security measures, large-scale marketing campaigns (Binance’s affiliate marketing program awards up to 50% commission fees, referral bonuses and promotion), and proactive community engagement by Binance’s leadership on social media.
Binance is nimble and adaptive enough to evolve quickly along the ever-changing regulatory landscape of cryptocurrency for the past seven years, as well as continuously innovating with its products and services.
3. Binance Pay Is the Number One Off-Chain Crypto Payment Service
Binance Pay is a revolutionary payment feature that allows users to send money globally within seconds. With fees starting from zero, Binance Pay is both cost-effective and efficient. This service underscores Binance’s commitment to making financial transactions as seamless and accessible as possible.
Binance Pay is an off-chain wallet, but it is now among the top crypto payment methods, along with the Bitcoin and Ethereum networks. Since 2021, Binance Pay’s total volume has crossed $120 billion.
4. SAFU: It Started with Binance
SAFU is an acronym for Secure Asset Fund for Users, the term has become part of the crypto lexicon. Did you know how it came about?In 2018, a creator named Bizonacci uploaded a tongue-in-cheek YouTube music video entitled Funds Are Safu, referencing the ex-Binance CEO, Changpeng Zhao, or CZ’s, now-iconic tweet during unscheduled maintenance at Binance – “Funds are safe” – to come up with the term SAFU.
The video became viral, and “SAFU” caught on, echoed by projects large and small following a security incident or any type of uncertainty.
To safeguard user funds from security breaches that plagued the cryptocurrency industry at the time, Binance established the Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) in July 2018.
Currently, SAFU holds more than $1 billion in reserve to cover any potential losses in case of a security breach. This initiative not only provides a safety net for users but also instills confidence in the security measures implemented by Binance.
Source: Bizonacci’s video.
5. Binance Is a Key Player in Protecting the Crypto Ecosystem
Perhaps it is not always evident to the public, but Binance is continuously aiding regulators and law enforcement agencies in the fight against crypto-related crime.
Many times Binance stood at the side of justice in order to bring the greater good to the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Binance regularly collaborates with law enforcement agencies worldwide, processing over 62,000 in 2023 alone. This equates to about 170 requests per day or 7 per hour. Also in 2023, in addition to operational assistance, Binance’s Law Enforcement Training Program delivered over 120 onsite and online training sessions to law enforcers globally. Meanwhile, by the year’s end, the security team recovered about 55 million USD total in user funds after coordinated efforts. Whenever there is any security breach in the cryptocurrency world, Binance would always be ready to lend a helping hand. For example, recently, on June 22 2024, the Turkish crypto exchange BTC Turk was compromised. Binance’s security team acted swiftly and froze over 5.3 million of funds from that attack.
6. Binance Is Really Fast
In an industry where timely support can make a significant difference, Binance leads the market with one of the fastest customer support response times, clocking in at less than one minute. Today, most user requests are picked up within 1 minute and resolved within the first CS chat, representing a dramatic improvement from waiting for hours in the early days of the industry.
The Customer Service (CS) team is Binance’s largest department, handling a range of responsibilities from immediate user inquiries, training, quality assurance, real-time user feedback analysis to token recovery. The CS department supports 17 languages and covers dozens of business sectors, ensuring global reach.
Binance has developed an advanced AI bot, integrated into the Binance Customer Support Chat, which intelligently provides suggested solutions based on user-provided information. This front-line application of AI significantly expedites issue resolution, resulting in a faster and more efficient response on the first contact.
If you look at the speed of Binance’s system, it is also quite impressive: the platform handles up to a whopping 2.58 million user queries per second.
User queries are automated signals sent from user browsers or apps to the Binance platform to perform various actions, such as placing an order, posting on Square, or withdrawing funds. These queries operate behind the scenes and are not visible to users. For instance, when you select the option to sell a certain amount of BTC on your interface, your app sends an automated query to Binance’s servers.
As user activity on the platform increases, Binance continues to upgrade its systems to ensure smooth and efficient operations. This ability to manage a high volume of queries positions Binance at the forefront of the cryptocurrency industry as it rides the global wave of adoption toward the one-billion users mark.
7. Binance Pioneered Remote-First Culture
Yes, believe it or not, in seven years of existence, Binance has supported tens of trillions in trading volume over group chats and online documents!
The term “work from home” and “remote-first” became truly popular in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, but even before it began, Binance had pioneered a remote-first culture. Binance sees remote working as one of the manifestations of its core value of freedom.
What is impressive to note is that despite growing from 30 members to over 5 000 of employees spread across the globe, Binance keeps its remote mode of operation intact. Today, Binance has a team of thousands of talented employees that collaborate daily across Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia Pacific.
Hence, Binance is one of the biggest companies in the world that successfully practices a fully remote work culture. It has now become a model for any company that wants to follow in these footsteps.
Further Reading
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Empowering the Enforcers: How Binance’s Training Program Helps Stamp Out Cybercrime
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From Our CEO: Seven Years at The Frontier of Financial Innovation
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Binance’s Work Culture Explained