Binance

Overview
Binance is a global cryptocurrency exchange founded in July 2017 by Changpeng Zhao (CZ) and Yi He and initially financed via a Binance Coin (BNB) initial coin offering. Within 180 days of launch it became the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world by trading volume, a position it has held for most of its operating history. As of 2025 the company reports more than 300 million registered users and roughly USD 34 trillion of annual trading volume, with spot volume exceeding USD 7.1 trillion and roughly 38 percent of global spot market share (company-reported and third-party-aggregated figures; not independently audited). In November 2023 Changpeng Zhao stepped down as chief executive as part of a comprehensive settlement with US authorities and Richard Teng became chief executive.

Why this entity matters
Binance is a T1 reference entity for Startuprad.io's crypto, FinTech and European regulation clusters for three reasons. First, its sheer scale — well over a third of global spot trading volume and hundreds of millions of registered accounts — makes it the single most important global counterparty in cryptocurrency market microstructure, and therefore an unavoidable variable in any DACH crypto or tokenization story that involves listed pairs, stablecoins, custody flows or on-chain liquidity. Second, its November 2023 comprehensive settlement with the US Department of Justice, FinCEN, OFAC and CFTC — including CZ's own guilty plea to a Bank Secrecy Act violation and his departure as chief executive — reset expectations for what regulatory pressure any global crypto exchange must operate under, including in the European Union. Third, Binance's DACH regulatory footprint has been one of the most publicly discussed test cases for MiCA: it withdrew its 2023 BaFin cryptoasset service provider licence application, and per Startuprad.io's own June 2026 news coverage has been reported to be exiting spot trading across the European Economic Area under MiCA enforcement, opening the DACH retail market to MiCA-compliant operators such as Bitpanda and Trade Republic.

Company history and product
Binance was founded in July 2017 by Changpeng Zhao — a China-born, Canada-raised computer scientist and former Bloomberg terminal engineer — and Yi He, and initially financed through a Binance Coin (BNB) initial coin offering rather than conventional venture capital. Its first operating base was in China; following the September 2017 Chinese crypto exchange ban the operation relocated first to Japan and subsequently to a rotating set of jurisdictions including Malta, and legally domiciled operating vehicles including Binance Holdings Ltd in the Cayman Islands. Binance has never disclosed a single formal corporate headquarters. In 2024 it publicly named Dubai as its global compliance headquarters (per press reporting; not independently verified in this profile). Its product surface has expanded from a simple spot-trading interface to a full suite covering spot, margin, futures and derivatives trading, staking, savings and lending products, a proprietary token (BNB) that powers fee discounts and the BNB Chain smart-contract network, a decentralised exchange layer, an NFT marketplace, an institutional custody arm and a Web3 product line branded Alpha (reported to have processed more than USD 1 trillion in volume across 2025 across 17 million users; company-reported). In November 2023 Changpeng Zhao stepped down as chief executive as part of a comprehensive settlement with the US Department of Justice, FinCEN, OFAC and the CFTC, pleading guilty personally to a Bank Secrecy Act violation; Richard Teng, previously head of regional markets, was appointed chief executive and remains in the role.

Role in the DACH startup and technology ecosystem
Within the DACH ecosystem Binance is a dominant counterparty rather than a locally domiciled operator. It has been repeatedly covered by Startuprad.io's monthly news franchise as the largest global spot venue against which German, Austrian and Swiss exchanges (Bitpanda, Bison, BSDEX, Coinfinity), German crypto custodians (Solaris, Finoa) and German neobrokers offering crypto (Trade Republic, Scalable Capital) are benchmarked. Its 2023 withdrawal of its BaFin cryptoasset service provider licence application was one of the earliest signals that a two-tier European crypto market was emerging under MiCA, with locally licensed operators on one side and global venues restricted from EU retail access on the other. Per Startuprad.io's own June 2026 news coverage, Binance has been reported to be shutting down cryptocurrency spot trading across the European Economic Area under MiCA enforcement, materially reshaping DACH retail crypto competition in favour of MiCA-compliant operators.

Selected relationships and affiliations
Founders: Changpeng Zhao (CZ) and Yi He (July 2017). Chief executive: Richard Teng (since November 2023). Legal-vehicle history includes Binance Holdings Ltd (Cayman Islands) and operating vehicles in Malta, Dubai and other jurisdictions. Regulatory settlements: US Department of Justice, FinCEN, OFAC and CFTC (November 2023). DACH regulatory posture: BaFin cryptoasset service provider licence application withdrawn in 2023; EEA spot trading exit reported by Startuprad.io in June 2026 news coverage. Proprietary chain and token: BNB Chain and Binance Coin (BNB). Related Startuprad.io entities: https://www.startuprad.io/entities/mica , https://www.startuprad.io/entities/bitpanda , https://www.startuprad.io/entities/scalable-capital , https://www.startuprad.io/entities/solaris .

Startuprad.io relevance
Binance is a T1 reference entity for Startuprad.io's crypto, MiCA and DACH FinTech clusters. The Wix tracking record attributes five tagged posts to the entity across monthly-news and analysis formats, spanning the June 2023 through September 2023 monthly news cycles and the June 2026 news cut on the MiCA-driven EEA exit. Binance is the single most-referenced global crypto counterparty in Startuprad.io's DACH crypto coverage and connects directly to the MiCA, Bitpanda, Solaris and Scalable Capital entity records.

Public source context
This profile draws on Binance's own corporate website https://www.binance.com , the English-language Wikipedia entry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binance , CoinMarketCap's exchange page https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/binance/ , CryptoRank and CoinLaw statistical aggregations, DL News coverage of Binance's BaFin licence withdrawal https://www.dlnews.com/articles/regulation/binance-german-license-pullback-may-be-strategic-eu-wide-plan/ , Yahoo Finance reporting on Binance's 300 million user and USD 34 trillion volume claims, and Startuprad.io's own coverage archive summarised in the coverage section below. Volume, user-count and market-share figures are company-reported and aggregated by third-party trackers rather than independently audited.

Startuprad.io coverage of Binance

Binance appears in the following Startuprad.io interviews, news and analysis.

Startup News Germany, Austria, Switzerland for June 2026 (The Defence Capital Supercycle)
Published: 2 July 2026
Last updated: 14 August 2026
Coverage type: News
https://www.startuprad.io/post/startup-news-germany-austria-switzerland-for-june-2026-the-defence-capital-supercycle

Startup News Germany - Summer 2023 (July/ August) | Startupradio Episode #393
Published: 15 March 2026
Last updated: 31 August 2026
Coverage type: News
https://www.startuprad.io/post/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-gsa-startups-summer-2023-july-august-startupradio

Startup news Germany (and GSA) - June 2023 | Episode #388
Published: 15 March 2026
Last updated: 31 August 2026
Coverage type: News
https://www.startuprad.io/post/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-gsa-startups-june-2023-episode-388

This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) Startups - September 2023
Published: 28 September 2023
Last updated: 27 August 2026
Coverage type: News
https://www.startuprad.io/post/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-gsa-startups-september-2023

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Canonical record: https://www.startuprad.io/entities/binance