On July 14, 2026, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange celebrated its ninth anniversary. The anniversary coincided with the publication of an impressive performance report and the launch of a large-scale monthly campaign, "Built by You," with a prize pool exceeding $4.5 million. The figures disclosed by the platform are striking and provide food for thought about the future of the entire industry.
A key metric is 300 million registered clients in over 100 countries. The retail base grew by approximately 7% over six months, while the institutional base grew by 9%. Listings expanded by 11% for coins and 3% for trading pairs. This indicates that the platform is not just retaining its audience but is also actively attracting professional players, a sign of market maturity.
According to the exchange's estimates, about 43% of all cryptocurrency holders worldwide use its services. For context: in 2017, when Binance was just starting out, the global number of digital asset owners was less than 6 million. By 2025, this figure had exceeded 741 million, demonstrating a colossal growth in interest in the industry.
TradFi Expansion: Stocks, ETFs, and Tokenized Securities
Binance's expansion into the realm of traditional finance (TradFi) deserves special attention. Since March 2026, the monthly trading volume of TradFi instruments on the platform has exceeded $80 billion. In June, access to over 7,000 US stocks and ETFs was opened. The Direct Stocks service, for direct stock trading, gathered $1 billion in assets under management and about $3 billion in total turnover in 30 days. Notably, over 73% of the first month's volume came from users in emerging markets — confirming global demand for access to US markets through a single interface.
Tokenized securities, bStocks, also had an impressive start: $100 million in assets in 15 days. Nearly half of the transactions (47%) occur when US exchanges are closed. This clearly demonstrates the advantage of the 24/7 crypto market. According to a Binance Research forecast, by 2031, crypto exchanges will bring nearly 300 million new users and about $2 trillion in capital to global stock markets. This is an ambitious but quite realistic scenario, given the current dynamics.
Payments, Rewards, and Community
Binance Pay is actively integrating with national payment systems, supporting QR codes in six countries, with plans to expand to ten by the end of Q3. Binance Card is available in 36 countries. In the first half of the year, the volume of transactions through fiat payment channels reached $83.3 billion, a 29% increase year-over-year. This indicates that the platform is becoming not just an exchange, but a full-fledged financial ecosystem.
Since 2019, Binance Earn has distributed $4.1 billion in income. The Launchpool, Megadrop, and HODLer Airdrops programs have issued $5.1 billion in rewards, and the Binance Alpha platform about $800 million. These figures underscore that the exchange actively incentivizes asset retention and user participation in on-chain activities.
Community activity is also impressive: by mid-June, the number of authors on Binance Square reached 4.74 million — a 58% increase compared to the entire year of 2025. The platform's online events were attended by 2.2 million people. This indicates high user engagement that goes beyond simple trading.
How to Get Your Share of $4.5 Million
The anniversary campaign "Built by You" is built around a virtual city with nine landmarks, each corresponding to one of the exchange's products. Participants need to activate the 9YA bonus on the campaign page and complete one task at each landmark. A reward is given for each completed stage, and after completing all nine, a final drop from the common pool is unlocked. The campaign will run throughout July.
In June, Binance captured 80% ($53.8 billion) of the total trading volume in perpetual futures on TradFi stocks — six times more than its nearest competitor. This confirms their dominance in a new, rapidly growing segment.
My comment: Binance's ninth anniversary is not just a milestone, but a demonstration of how a crypto exchange is transforming into a global financial supermarket. The growth of institutional interest and expansion into TradFi are key trends that will define the industry's development in the coming years. However, as with any success story, behind these numbers lie challenges: regulatory pressure and the need to balance between decentralization and centralized control. So far, Binance is managing, but the future will show how sustainable this model is.