Binance co-CEOs Richard Teng and Yi He marked the exchange's ninth anniversary with a live AMA session on Binance Square, revealing that users acquired more than $1 billion in US equities on the platform within 30 days of launch — the majority from emerging markets — as the world's largest crypto exchange accelerates its push into traditional finance.The milestone caps a year in which Binance expanded its market share from 38% to 42.6% despite market volatility and regulatory headwinds, with Teng declaring the convergence of crypto and traditional finance "a big testament to the maturity and mainstreaming of crypto."Key TakeawaysBinance users acquired over $1 billion in US equities within 30 days of launch, with the large majority coming from emerging marketsB Stocks, the exchange's tokenized equities product, crossed $100 million in 15 days with just 10 tokenized stocksBinance's market share grew more than four percentage points this year, from 38% to 42.6%The exchange holds more than 60% of clean reserves across the top ten exchanges — more than the other nine combinedBinance's spot volume is 2.3 times that of the next largest exchangeFrom "Rebuilding Wall Street" to Bringing Wall Street On-ChainCo-founder Yi He said the shift toward traditional financial products reflects a change in how the industry understands user demand. In crypto's early days, she recalled, the ambition was to "rebuild Wall Street" with a new token market. Nine years on, the priority has changed."Day by day, you can see from the user side, their request is just to have the best assets in the world," Yi He said. "Whether it's gold, silver, oil, or a really fantastic AI company IPO in the stock market — I began to look back at what users want and what users are most excited about. Definitely, that's the best assets."Rather than replacing traditional markets, she said, Binance now aims to upgrade access to them: extending trading from roughly five days a week to 24/7, while using blockchain to "build a better-efficiency, lower-fee exchange system."She tied the strategy back to the company's original slogan: "Our early slogan was 'exchange the world' — that means we want to connect different people together, making sure they can easily pay each other, transact with each other, and still trade the best assets — not just crypto, but different types of assets on our platform."Teng: Users Asked "Why Can't I Do More on One Platform?"Teng said the expansion was driven directly by user demand rather than diversification for its own sake."The question they've always been asking is: why can't I do more with my assets on one single platform? Why do I need a separate brokerage account to buy stocks, a separate account for payment, and a separate app for savings?" he said.The answer, according to Teng, is "a multi-asset class platform across multi-jurisdiction — a global exchange encompassing stocks, ETFs, tokenized securities, pre-IPO perpetuals, all on Binance, alongside our traditional crypto offerings."He highlighted the financial-access dimension of the equities milestone: "People that have never had access to US stocks before are now buying them, with access for as little as $5.""We did not expand beyond crypto just for the sake of it," Teng added. "It's something that our users are looking for. Crypto infrastructure will continue to be part of the global infrastructure landscape. It provides the right foundation for delivering access at scale."Trust Metrics Hold Up in a Volatile YearAsked what gives him confidence in Binance's next chapter, Teng pointed to reserve and volume data — particularly user behavior during market stress."Even as industry reserves fell 36% from the September 2025 peak, our share of reserves went up four percentage points," he said. "While the markets are most uncertain, users move their assets to Binance. They trust us. They choose to continue to trade on us."He cited the exchange's position across key metrics: more than 60% of clean reserves among the top ten exchanges, spot volume 2.3 times the next largest venue and greater than the next four combined, and one of the lowest average leverage ratios in the industry.Teng attributed the resilience to trust built "not overnight" but "from consistency of actions and deeds each and every day, from millions of interactions over the course of nine years.""Nine years in, I'm more confident than I have ever been," he said. "Not because of where we are, but because our users continue to trust us and place their confidence in us. The next chapter belongs to them."
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