After surpassing 300 million platform users, Binance and Crypto Nasdaq in 2025

Article: ChandlerZ, Foresight News

Outside the Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai, a sandy-colored small mosque is surrounded by neon lights, giving it a slightly distorted appearance in the night. Entering the venue, the path to the main hall consists of dark tunnels with bright yellow light strips embedded in the walls, mimicking the Binance logo; nearby is a large yellow slide leading to the next level, while on the opposite side, spectators queue for the trampoline.

Over two days, this largest indoor venue in the Middle East was completely transformed into a temporary fortress of the crypto world. More than 5,200 attendees, from OGs in hoodies to asset management representatives in suits, were scheduled in the same program lineup.

This year’s Binance Blockchain Week was officially described as “the most ambitious to date.” Despite still lasting only two days, the event’s density far exceeded previous years. The main stage was almost seamlessly connected from morning till evening, covering topics from Bitcoin bull cycles, stablecoins and the dollar system, to AI integration and innovation, real-world adoption, next-generation infrastructure, institutional growth, and geopolitical risks, with seats filled to capacity.

For industry insiders in crypto assets, this was an annual industry gathering; for the broader financial system, it was more like a showcase window for a “Crypto Nasdaq” capable of handling hundreds of millions in capital flows.

He Yi Appointed Co-CEO

At the Binance Blockchain Week 2025 event, co-founder He Yi announced her appointment as Co-CEO, forming a dual-CEO management structure alongside Richard Teng, who assumed the role in 2023.

During media interviews, He Yi explained that this arrangement was a natural outcome of division of labor. Richard has many years of experience in regulation and traditional finance, and is more familiar with compliance pathways across jurisdictions, seen as a bridge between Binance and regulators; she herself has come from early entrepreneurship, has long been at the forefront of product and community, and is closer to real market feedback and user needs.

Over the past year, she has taken over horizontal functions such as HR, aiming to transform Binance from a company heavily dependent on founders’ judgment into an enterprise operating under systems and organizational capability, shifting focus from people to mechanisms.

In her view, the co-CEO system is part of this transformation: one CEO focuses more on regulators and institutions, while the other continues to serve as “Chief Customer Officer,” maintaining a user-centric culture, promoting organizational restructuring, and increasing talent density internally. Both share responsibility for long-term governance.

Externally, this personnel arrangement also carries a more direct meaning. As Binance scales up, it means that the platform’s size in asset custody, matching frequency, and clearing pressure is approaching the infrastructure level of medium-sized economies; at such scale, a single “strongman” management becomes unsustainable, and the compliance and user discourse rights are unlikely to be held by the same person.

The dual-CEO structure is seen as a compromise between “user-first” and “compliance-first” tensions, and also a signal that Binance is shifting from a high-growth crypto company to an infrastructure institution seeking stability within regulatory oversight.

He Yi attributes her decision to remain at Binance to a sense of responsibility. Many users choose to entrust their assets to the platform, which means Binance manages not only large amounts of capital but also participates in shaping a new stage of the global financial system.

And this responsibility has quickly been quantified with a concrete number:

On December 8, Binance founder Zhao Changpeng posted that “Binance’s registered users have exceeded 300 million.”

“Compliance and Security First”

Looking back at Binance’s own data, by the end of 2024, the exchange disclosed that its registered users surpassed 250 million, a 47% increase year over year; the total assets under custody amounted to about $160 billion, with all products’ cumulative trading volume reaching the $100 trillion level.

In July, celebrating its eighth anniversary, Binance revealed the latest figures: 280 million users and a cumulative trading volume of $125 trillion.

By the end of 2025, this number officially exceeded 300 million.

This scale can be more intuitively understood within the traditional financial system. Over 250 million registered users roughly correspond to the total securities accounts of several middle-sized economies, or nearly the size of a large retail banking group’s global retail customer base.

For any technological and operational system, this means that order matching, risk control engines, clearing, and custody systems must operate continuously under “national-level” loads.

But what truly determines whether Binance can support this volume is not just growth itself, but its dealings with regulation and compliance systems over the past two years.

In 2023, Binance reached a settlement agreement totaling about $4.3 billion with the U.S. Department of Justice and the Treasury Department’s agencies. By October 23, 2025, the White House announced that Trump had pardoned Zhao Changpeng.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated at a press briefing that Zhao Changpeng’s pardon had gone through standard review procedures before reaching President Trump’s desk for final approval. Leavitt emphasized that the pardon process was “handled with utmost seriousness,” adding, “We have very thorough review procedures, working with the Department of Justice and the White House legal counsel, with a team of qualified lawyers reviewing every pardon request submitted to the U.S. president.”

Binance’s global operational strategy is also evolving. On the one hand, Binance is consolidating and renewing licenses across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, recently obtaining a “Global License” under the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) framework, becoming the first crypto exchange approved under this framework. Starting from January 5, 2026, Binance’s services will be provided through three entities licensed under ADGM, each playing specific roles based on their regulatory permissions:

• Nest Exchange Services Limited: as an “Recognized Investment Trading Platform” (approved to operate multi-party trading facilities), responsible for all trading platform activities, including spot and derivatives trading;
• Nest Clearing and Custody Limited: as a “Recognized Clearing House” (authorized to provide custody services), responsible for clearing and settlement, acting as the central counterparty for derivatives trading on the platform, and safeguarding users’ digital assets;
• Nest Trading Limited: as a “Broker-Dealer,” responsible for OTC trading and proprietary trading services (e.g., OTC, flash swaps, asset management).

On the other hand, Binance regularly releases compliance and security reports, making more frequent updates on proof of reserves (PoR) and transparency of reserves than industry average.

Behind the figure of 300 million users lies a system that must sustain continuous operation under extreme market conditions and regulatory pressures.

When Bitcoin futures open interest hits new highs, ETF net inflows exceed $1 billion in a single day, and cross-border stablecoin settlement volume surges, the matching engines, clearing links, and risk limits all need to withstand rigorous tests.

Moving IPO pipelines into the crypto world

If user scale and compliance architecture determine whether a platform can survive in the “superstructure,” then the mechanisms for onboarding new projects directly influence its pricing power on the asset side.

By the end of 2024, Binance Wallet launched Binance Alpha, officially described as a pre-listing observation pool. The platform team selects a batch of emerging tokens based on community interest, industry trends, and project quality, showcasing them in the wallet and providing a one-click purchase entry.

Unlike traditional Launchpad or IDO models, Alpha resembles a pre-IPO channel: users can participate in early-stage projects filtered by the platform without setting up additional on-chain wallets or overly interacting with complex contracts; these projects then have the chance to “graduate” at a certain time and be considered for listing on Binance’s spot main board.

In more familiar capital market terms, this mechanism bears a distinct IPO pipeline characteristic. Projects accumulate attention and liquidity within a relatively closed candidate pool, with the platform handling part of the screening, due diligence, and risk warning functions, culminating in price discovery on the main board.

According to Binance’s Alpha token data, as of August, out of 152 Alpha tokens (including TGEs, airdrops, and Boosters), 23 successfully listed on Binance’s spot market, and 72 on Binance’s derivatives platform.

Since the platform does not guarantee all Alpha projects will list on the main board, this mechanism lowers user participation barriers while also raising market expectations of Binance’s screening capabilities.

This expectation creates both opportunities and pressures. It positions Binance more proactively in the “new project supply” layer. It’s becoming increasingly difficult for project teams to rely solely on decentralized issuance paths for a cold start; the listing window of leading exchanges is becoming the most crucial liquidity entry point. However, a high-frequency candidate pool also raises the bar for project screening and information disclosure. If there are major incidents or clear information asymmetries, criticism can flow back to the platform at a faster pace.

Stablecoins and 20 million merchants: When crypto becomes a production tool

If Alpha exemplifies innovation in fundraising and valuation, then stablecoins and payments point to a more fundamental “production tool.”

Since its launch in 2021, Binance Pay’s growth can be described as “explosive.” In 2024, the total transaction volume processed by this service was approximately $72.4 billion, with 41.7 million users.

By 2025, this growth extended from users to merchants. According to Binance’s official statistics, at the start of the year, only about 12,000 merchants supported Binance Pay, but by November, this number had exceeded 20 million, a surge of over 1,700 times in ten months; cumulatively, since its launch, Binance Pay has processed over $250 billion in transactions, covering more than 45 million users, with stablecoin settlement accounting for over 98% of B-to-C payments since 2025.

More importantly, these transactions are not just symbolic support for crypto payments. Through integration with local payment networks and scenarios in various countries, Binance Pay’s usage is gradually embedded into real-life and business scenarios.

The latest cooperation links Binance Pay with Brazil’s central bank-led instant payment network Pix. Both local Brazilian users and Argentine residents holding Binance accounts can directly pay bills and make purchases with Pix QR codes using their crypto assets. Similar integrations are seen in scenarios such as tourism in Bhutan, where Binance Pay is used to support tourists paying for flights, visas, and local services with digital assets.

For many small and medium cross-border sellers, freelancers, and tourism service providers, “receiving stablecoins first, then exchanging at the right time into local fiat currency,” is becoming a practical operational process.

This elevates Binance Pay’s position within Binance’s overall ecosystem from a value-added service to a true capital infrastructure. One end connects the exchange’s account system and liquidity pools; the other connects the payment scenarios and local currencies across multiple continents. For users who do not see themselves as “crypto investors,” the entry point may not be a spot trading pair but rather a payment QR code popping up during travel or online shopping.

After 300 million users, the real test begins

If we extend the timeline to the entire year, 2025 can almost be seen as a year of global liquidity re-pricing. Major central banks repeatedly test the boundaries between high interest rates and falling inflation; US stocks experience multiple sharp shocks; tech stocks and AI sectors fluctuate amid debates over optimism and bubbles; and risk assets’ rises and falls start to show stronger synchronization. Crypto assets are increasingly incorporated into formal asset allocation frameworks by asset managers.

In mid-July, the total global market cap of cryptocurrencies first surpassed $40 trillion, reaching around $43.5 trillion in October. This rally is not solely narrative-driven. The U.S. introduced a package of crypto legislation; major economies are establishing regulatory frameworks for stablecoins and tokenized assets, providing compliant access points for mainstream funds; CME’s crypto futures and options traded over $900 billion in Q3 alone, with Bitcoin futures open interest reaching $72 billion at times. This indicates hedge funds, macro funds, and asset managers now view Bitcoin and similar assets as standardized assets manageable via futures, options, and ETFs. The spot ETF market further reshapes the landscape: BlackRock’s IBIT surpassed $70 billion within a year, and Bitcoin spot ETFs’ total assets once exceeded $140 billion. The capital pipeline between crypto assets and traditional financial markets is being systematically constructed for the first time.

In this process, Binance occupies a delicate position. Due to U.S. regulatory constraints, ETF custody and primary trading are mainly conducted within licensed custody institutions and traditional brokerages; meanwhile, hedging, rebalancing, and liquidity management still rely heavily on OTC market makers and deep quotes from major global spot and derivatives trading venues — with Binance still among the most significant.

In other words, the path toward ETF-like allocation for Bitcoin and Ethereum by mainstream institutions is closely tied to Binance’s liquidity provision capabilities.

Meanwhile, a traditional giant like Franklin Templeton is accelerating its digital asset deployment. Besides launching Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs and releasing annual outlooks on crypto and tokenized assets, the firm announced in 2025 its cooperation with various platforms on tokenized mutual funds and plans to reach broader retail investors via digital wallets, including exploring digital asset products with platforms like Binance.

Returning to the original question: When Binance claims to have over 300 million users and the market describes it as “Crypto Nasdaq,” what must be the true precondition for this metaphor to hold?

In traditional capital markets, Nasdaq’s significance is not only in market cap and listed companies but also in its resilience during multiple tech bubbles, liquidity crunches, and systemic panics—rarely turning into a source of risk due to technical or governance failures.

At times of maximum stress, matching and clearing still operate, prices can fluctuate dramatically, but the market remains orderly.

Binance now stands at a similar starting point: 300 million users inevitably make it a key node for industry sentiment and liquidity; regulatory rectifications after U.S. legal settlements, license progress in Europe and the Middle East, and collaborations with institutions like BlackRock and Franklin embed it firmly within the existing financial system.

By 2025, whether institutional capital, stablecoin flows, or everyday users are entering more through systemic, institutional channels, Binance’s infrastructure platform has become an indispensable part of this pathway.

From this perspective, “the Crypto Nasdaq of 300 million people” is more like a test paper handed to the market in advance. Given its current scale, regulatory restructuring, and infrastructure investments, Binance has already written a significant part of the answer.

What remains is time and cycles.