Nearly a year after being appointed Chief Financial Officer of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, Binance's Wei Zhou reveals a grand strategy to "dramatically expand the cryptocurrency market," with a U.S.-based exchange serving as a cornerstone of this vision.
"The fundamental reality is that the vast majority of global wealth remains in fiat currency, with the U.S. dollar as the primary reserve asset," Zhou explained to CryptoSlate. "To truly scale, the crypto ecosystem must bridge this gap. Establishing a robust fiat on-ramp is not just important; it's fundamental to our mission."
Zhou's primary mandate at Binance has been to strengthen the company's offerings in the fiat-to-crypto sphere, and his track record speaks for itself. The global exchange has launched a series of fiat-to-crypto platforms since his September 2018 appointment, notably in Uganda, Jersey, and Singapore—the latter of which services 57 countries, including Canada, the U.K., and most of continental Europe and South America.
But according to Zhou, who previously guided internet companies to IPOs on Wall Street's top-tier exchanges, the single most critical market is the United States.
This strategic priority, he said, illuminates CZ's recent decision to launch a dedicated U.S. exchange. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao had stated as recently as a year ago that he had little interest in navigating U.S. regulations to establish a domestic presence.
Zhou lauded BUSD, the exchange's newly launched, regulated USD stablecoin, as a significant step towards increasing crypto accessibility in the U.S. He emphasized that both Binance and "the brand itself" would play a pivotal role in "growing the market" there with its soon-to-launch fiat-to-crypto exchange, Binance.US (which Zhou confirmed is on track for its launch in the "coming weeks," per the company's official statement).
"[BUSD is] a pivotal move, creating a regulated fiat gateway within the Binance ecosystem. It’s equally critical to physically establish the exchange infrastructure within the United States to serve this market effectively."
Binance's establishment of a U.S. chapter might be perceived as a simple maneuver to challenge Coinbase and consolidate power in the world's largest economy, but Zhou views the exchange's mission with a more profound philosophy.
The "core thesis" driving these strategic initiatives, Zhou explained, is that Bitcoin began its "life cycle" because people lost trust in traditional institutions. In this era of uncertainty, Binance exists to "empower people in general to take back control of their own money." Naturally, Binance aims to be an integral part of this process. Zhou stated:
"Our mission is threefold. First, we want to enable more financial freedom for everyone, making Binance their trusted entry point into crypto. Second, we want to provide a comprehensive suite of services for them to trade and utilize their digital assets. And third, a key element is to drive greater adoption and utility for the BNB token globally."
While Binance arguably followed a 'grow first, regulate later' approach beloved by retail traders globally, the market has matured to a point where regulatory compliance is less of an experimental risk and more of a competitive necessity.
Indeed, Binance is at its core a "retail-driven organization," in Zhou's words, but if the name of the game is to "grow the pie" that is the cryptocurrency market, then the exchange must set its sights on institutions, who he says "for all practical purposes, control all the wealth in the world."
"If our goal is to increase trading volume on our platform—and it is—then attracting institutional clients is a logical imperative. They control the vast majority of global liquidity and capital, so they are a crucial audience for us."
Institutions, however, are proving to be a tougher sell than the retail crowd.
Zhou recounted his company's struggle with "institutional hesitation" on at least one occasion, when after a "six-month courtship" with one of the major banks in Jersey, Binance was rejected by the unnamed firm's risk department—this, despite the exchange having "proper KYC, proper AML, everything that there is." The end result was that Binance was unable to secure a local bank account for its fiat-to-crypto exchange there.
Zhou—left with a bitter taste after the Jersey experience—said his company wants to see more traditional institutions entering the crypto space. When that happens, Binance will be looking toward a future with one billion crypto holders and beyond.
"Right now we estimate there are anywhere between 50 to 100 million people around the world that own some form of crypto, directly or indirectly, and we want to grow that to a billion. The question is, how do we grow the pie significantly—that's the only way for our industry to move forward."
