Binance

Binance is a cryptocurrency exchange that provides a platform for trading various cryptocurrencies. As of January 2018, Binance was the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world in terms of trading volume.

Binance
Founded2017
Founders
Headquarters
Malta[1]
Key people
Changpeng Zhao (CEO)
ProductsCryptocurrency exchange
Websitewww.binance.com

Binance was founded by Changpeng Zhao, a developer who had previously created high frequency trading software. Binance was initially based in China, but later moved out of China due China's increasing regulation of cryptocurrency.

History

CEO Changpeng Zhao had previously founded Fusion Systems in 2005 in Shanghai; the company built high-frequency trading systems for brokers. In 2013 he joined Blockchain.info as the third member of the cryptocurrency wallet’s team. He also worked at OKCoin as CTO for less than a year, a platform for spot trading between fiat and digital assets.[2]

The company was founded in China but moved its servers and headquarters out of China and into Japan in advance of the Chinese government ban on cryptocurrency trading in September 2017.[3] By March 2018 the company had established offices in Taiwan.[2]

As of January 2018 it was largest cryptocurrency exchange with a market capitalization of $1.3 billion.[4]

In March 2018, Binance announced its intentions to open an office in Malta after stricter regulations in Japan and China.[5] In April 2018, Binance signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Bermuda.[6] Months later, a similar memorandum was signed with the Malta Stock Exchange to develop a platform for trading security tokens.[7] In 2019, company announced Binance Jersey, an independent entity from its parent Binance.com exchange, with the aim to expand its European influence. Jersey based exchange offers fiat-to-cryptocurrency pairs, including the Euro and the British pound.[8]

In August 2018, Binance along with three other big exchanges raised $32 million for a stable coin project. The idea of stable coins is to provide a cryptocurrency without the notorious volatility of Bitcoin and other popular digital assets.[9]

In January 2019, Binance announced that it had partnered with Israel-based payment processor Simplex to enable cryptocurrency purchases with debit and credit cards, including Visa and Mastercard. The purchases are subject to Simplex’s local bank policies and are limited to Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Ripple’s XRP.[10]

On May 7, 2019, Binance revealed that it had been the victim of a “large scale security breach” in which hackers had stolen 7,000 Bitcoin worth around U.S.$40 million at the time.[11] Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said the hackers “used a variety of techniques, including phishing, viruses and other attacks” and structured their transaction “in a way that passed our existing security checks.”[12] Binance halted further withdrawals and deposits but allowed trading to continue. The site pledged to reimburse customers through its secure asset fund.

In September 2019, the exchange began offering perpetual futures contracts, allowing leverage as high as 125 times the value of the contracts.[13]

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 noted that Binance “is not authorized by the MFSA to operate in the cryptocurrency sphere and is therefore not subject to regulatory oversight by the MFSA.” The MFSA added that it was “assessing if Binance has any activities in Malta which may not fall within the realm of regulatory oversight.”[14]

Binance has also acquired India's biggest Crypto Currency Exchange WazirX and through launchpad also launched an IEO of Matic Network [4]

On October 28, 2020, Forbes staff released leaked documents alleging that Binance and Changpeng Zhao (also known as CZ) created an elaborate corporate structure designed to intentionally deceive United States regulators and secretly profit from cryptocurrency investors.[15]

References
  1. "Why world leader crypto exchange Binance moved to Malta". Malta Today. Retrieved 19 July 2019.
  2. Ambler, Pamela (7 February 2018). "From Zero To Crypto Billionaire In Under A Year: Meet The Founder Of Binance". Forbes.
  3. Xiao, Eva (30 November 2017). "Three months after launch, this unbanked crypto exchange made $7.5m in profit". Tech in Asia.
  4. Nakamura, Yuji; Lun, Haidi (2018-01-11). "World's Top-Ranked Crypto Exchange Adds 240,000 Users in One Hour". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  5. Nakamura, Yuji (2018-03-23). "World's Biggest Cryptocurrency Exchange Is Heading to Malta". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2018-03-24.
  6. "The Continuing Development Of A Fintech Ecosystem For Bermuda" (PDF). Ber News. 2018-04-27. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2019-01-19. Retrieved 2021-02-04.
  7. plc, Malta Stock Exchange. "MSE and Binance sign MoU". Malta Stock Exchange. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
  8. "Crypto Giant Binance to Offer Euro Trading Pairs This Year". Bloomberg.com. 2018-06-11. Retrieved 2018-06-14.
  9. "Binance and Other Crypto Exchanges Back $32 Million Stable Coin Project". Fortune. Retrieved 2018-08-30.
  10. Russell, Jon. "Binance now lets users buy crypto with a credit card". TechCrunch. Retrieved 31 January 2019.
  11. Kharpal, Arjun (8 May 2019). "Binance bitcoin hack: Over $40 million of cryptocurrency stolen". www.cnbc.com. Retrieved 8 May 2019.
  12. Valinsky, Jordan. "Hackers steal $40 million worth of bitcoin in massive security breach". CNN. Retrieved 8 May 2019.
  13. "Bitcoin Speculators Gain Upper Hand as Derivative Trading Surges". Bloomberg.com. 2019-10-22. Retrieved 2021-01-21.
  14. "Public Statement". MFSA. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  15. "Leaked 'Tai Chi' Document Reveals Binance's Elaborate Scheme To Evade Bitcoin Regulators". Forbes. 2020-10-28. Retrieved 2020-10-30.
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