By far the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, bitcoin’s price has risen over 170% since the year started. Earlier this week, it made news to set a new all-time high before giving back some gains. Similarly, exchange volumes have exploded. Launched in 2017 by Changpeng Zhao(CZ), Binance is one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges by trading volume.
Binance to Double its Profits
CEO Changpeng Zhao stated that cryptocurrency exchange Binance would likely earn between $800 million and $1 billion this year, as market uncertainty drives interest – and trading – in cryptos. The rise was up from about $570 million last year.
Back when the world had piles of failed exchanges, say Mt. Gox, in 2014, Zhao had experience engineering high-frequency trading systems and working for other crypto startups.
Binance offered lower trading fees and launched a coin, BNB, that doubles as a loyalty program. When held in a digital wallet, you pay lower prices, no matter what coins you trade.
The company has dominated the market for crypto derivatives such as Bitcoin futures thanks to competitors’ issues. In April, it acquired CoinMarketCap, the number one stop for crypto investors to check thousands of coin prices and determine which exchange has an enormous trading volume. However, the terms of the contract were never disclosed.
Working Closely With Regulators
Within the cryptocurrency space, regulation remains a high priority for governments and regulators. Exchanges are on watch, especially those showing high performance.
To prove his company’s staying power, Zhao ought to remain on the right side of regulators. In July, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission(SEC) hired the same company Binance uses to collect data from its blockchain, which runs BNB, to monitor the blockchain and deter bad actors. Zhao stated that they are always working closely with regulators and law enforcement agencies around the world.
Binance, last year, announced a partnership with international regulation technology company Confirm to deal with new guidelines about the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) anti-money laundering (AML) rules.
This partnership ensured Binance compliance with the FATF regulations to distance itself as a platform for money laundering in the 180 countries it operates in commercially. For Samuel Lim, Chief Compliance Officer at Binance, this step was not about putting Binance at the pinnacle of compliance; instead, he saw it as falling in line for the entire industry.The exchange crossed a whopping $1 billion in cumulative profit as of Sept. 30, 2019, last year. Binance is exercising its dominance and will not back down any time soon.
