Odaily casts Binance’s ninth year as a pivot into global finance
In a retrospective published for Binance’s ninth anniversary, Odaily said the exchange is no longer being measured only against other crypto venues. The article places Binance inside a broader question facing the industry in 2026: whether exchanges stay focused on the crypto core or move deeper into the global financial system.
Odaily described Binance as the clearest example of that shift. The report said the company had already listed more than 7,000 U.S. stocks and said its stablecoin reserves stood at $53 billion, with a 57% market share. In Odaily’s telling, Binance is trying to position itself as a “super financial platform” for the next monetary era.
The article said Binance now serves more than 320 million users in 180 countries and regions, with client assets above $128 billion. It split the company’s nine-year history into four stages.
Stage 1: early expansion in 2017 and 2018
Binance launched on July 14, 2017. Odaily wrote that the name “Binance” was said to come from “Binary Finance.” The exchange emerged during the later part of the ICO boom, and BNB was described as one of that year’s standout public token sales.
After Chinese regulators issued their Sept. 4, 2017 notice, triggering an industry-wide retreat, Binance moved its servers to Japan and later shifted its headquarters to Malta, according to the article. Odaily said that global move helped Binance rise to the top spot by trading volume within months.
In 2018, as the market turned bearish, Binance focused on building. The report said user numbers passed 6 million that year, while Binance Labs, Binance Academy, Binance Research, and Binance Charity Foundation were set up. Trust Wallet and the BNB ecosystem also took shape during that period.
Stage 2: ecosystem expansion from 2019 to 2021
Odaily said Binance entered a high-growth phase in 2019. It expanded credit card on-ramps, pushed into Western markets, developed stablecoin activity around BUSD, and built out the BSC ecosystem.
That same year, Binance suffered a hack involving 7,000 BTC. The article said the exchange fully compensated users, turning the incident into a test of platform credibility and response speed.
Odaily also highlighted the launch of perpetual futures and a DEX as major drivers of trading growth. Binance then rolled out IEOs, Launchpad, Launchpool, DeFi staking, and Binance Liquid Swap. The report said Binance Labs, now Yzi Labs, began producing projects that gained visibility across the industry, while BSC drew more users, KOLs, and “Binance Angels.”
By January 2021, Binance had reached a monthly spot trading volume above $1 trillion, according to the article. Odaily also noted that founder CZ entered the world’s top 10 richest people that year with a fortune of $94.1 billion. The report’s broader point was that Binance had moved beyond being just an exchange and had become a key piece of crypto market infrastructure.
Stage 3: compliance and regulation from 2022 to 2024
The article said 2022 brought a new downturn after the DeFi, GameFi, and NFT booms. It listed the collapses tied to Terra, LUNA, and UST, as well as Three Arrows Capital, Silicon Valley Bank, and FTX, arguing that trust in crypto was being tested against standards set by the wider financial system.
Even so, Odaily said Binance’s share of the global crypto spot market reached 62% in October 2022. It also described Binance as one of the first exchanges to publish proof of reserves that year.
For 2023, the piece focused on the U.S. compliance case. It said CZ accepted a U.S. investigation that ended with a four-month prison sentence for him and a $4.3 billion settlement between Binance and the U.S. Department of Justice. Odaily called it the largest corporate settlement in U.S. history involving criminal charges against an executive. The article said Binance then entered a “post-CZ era,” guided by co-founder He Yi and new CEO Richard Teng.
In 2024, with spot Bitcoin ETFs and spot Ethereum ETFs approved and Bitcoin moving above its prior $69,000 high, the article said the convergence of traditional finance and crypto accelerated. By the end of 2024, Odaily said Binance had 250 million registered users, cumulative trading volume above $100 trillion, and annual revenue of $16.8 billion. It also cited a $2 billion strategic investment from Abu Dhabi sovereign-backed investment firm MGX, calling it one of the largest single investments in crypto history.
Stage 4: a super gateway for financial assets in 2025 and 2026
Odaily said Binance has spent the last two years moving toward a role as a global gateway for financial assets and a broader super app. As traditional and crypto markets draw closer, the article said U.S. equities, RWA assets, listed companies, and stablecoin-based payments are increasingly appearing within the same user journey.
According to the report, Binance opened trading for more than 7,000 U.S. stocks and ETFs in June 2026 and later added on-chain tokenized trading through bStocks. Odaily framed that as a new stage in Binance’s expansion beyond crypto-native products.
One account, multiple asset classes
The piece said Binance is pushing what it called asset equality through a single account structure. It gave examples that included an Argentine worker affected by inflation buying U.S. equities with $10, a digital nomad in Bali using crypto to pay for coffee and restaurant bills, and users in the Middle East trading oil and gold moves. The article said stock assets under management on Binance topped $1 billion within one month.
Global markets on a 24/7 schedule
Odaily argued that Binance is also removing time-zone barriers. It said users can trade around the clock regardless of where they live, and described bStocks as the final major addition to Binance’s asset categories.
Risk controls built around reserves and AI
The report also focused on security. It said on-chain finance still faces hacker attacks, social engineering, and custody risks, while Binance relies on reserve mechanisms and AI-based security and compliance systems. Citing official data, Odaily said Binance’s AI security and risk-control system has blocked more than $10.5 billion in fraud risks since 2025.
Odaily lists four layers inside Binance’s current app
Using what it described as official information, the article said Binance’s all-in-one super app now includes four functional layers:
- Infrastructure: Pre-IPO Perps, Stocks, Tokenized Stocks (bStocks), Spot, Futures, Margin, Options, Alpha, Wallet, Fiat Gateway, Loans, and VIP.
- Community and social: Chat, Binance Square, and C2C.
- Growth and yield: Earn, Launchpool, Megadrop, HODLer Airdrops, Simple Earn, and Mining Pool.
- Smart applications: Binance Ai Pro, Binance Pay, and Card.
The article said more than 320 million users can now use one account for merchant payments, transfers to friends, trading, fractional stock purchases, and yield products. Odaily added that Binance’s super app push has moved from crypto into U.S. equities, with a target of reaching 3 billion users globally.
The article’s core argument
Odaily ended by saying Binance has spent nine years moving from questions around trading access, user experience, and asset variety to a bigger one: how to let people worldwide take part in freer global capital flows. Its answer, the article said, has changed in form but not in direction. Markets, assets, and financial structures have evolved, while Binance has kept its user-centered approach and its stated aim of advancing financial inclusion.