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State of The Blockchain: Binance’s 2023 in Review, its year-end report situating Binance’s key milestones of the year within the wider industry context
DUBAI, UAE, Dec. 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Binance, the leading global blockchain ecosystem behind the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, today released its 2023 year-end report. Binance shares:
The year 2023 has been a tumultuous one for crypto. Yet, even during the long periods of recovery, the building of valuable products and robust infrastructure in the Web3 space never stopped. We arrived at the end of this calendar year a stronger industry than we have ever been, having built a powerful momentum on the path to the mass adoption of digital assets.
As the industry leader, Binance has experienced the same headwinds and wins as the digital asset ecosystem at large, being influenced by – and often setting and helping to shape – some of the key trends that defined blockchain and crypto in 2023. From the rise of SocialFi to the burgeoning adoption of crypto payments, from the increased focus on compliance to the growing accessibility of Web3 products, Binance led the way, working hard to meet emerging user needs and build trust in digital assets globally.
In 2023, we welcomed more than 40 million new users, nearly a 30% increase from the end of last year, as well as saw steady growth in our key services, and introduced new products and features built for the next era of blockchain. We remained true to our core value – always putting our users first – and significantly strengthened our compliance program.
Its year-end report, "State of The Blockchain: Binance’s 2023 in Review," consolidates the key facts, stats, and narratives that describe the year’s dynamics for Binance and the larger digital asset industry.
The People-Centric Web
The ultimate promise of blockchain and Web3 is to empower individuals through a more decentralized and user-centric online experience. Given Binance’s focus on delivering maximum value to its users, the world’s leading digital asset ecosystem continued to see strong growth in user registrations and wide adoption of its services geared toward real-world use cases and making Web3 more accessible.
By the end of 2023, Binance reached the mark of 170M registered users, offering 431 assets available for trading across 1785 trading pairs. This year, Binance saw tremendous growth in its services related to crypto payments, P2P trading, and earning. The number of people using Binance Pay or Card grew by 54 percent, served by over 3,500 new Pay merchants and partners globally who now accept crypto in exchange for goods and services.
Its P2P platform, which now supports 970 payment methods and 112 fiat currencies, processed 18 percent more trades than last year, and served 39 percent more users. Binance Earn also grew, now supporting 362 assets across its Simple Earn suite of products. In 2023, it served 35 percent more users than the year before, increasing the total value locked in its products by 16.8 percent.
Responding to the industry-wide demand for a more compelling Web3 social experience, Binance Feed evolved into Binance Square, a platform designed to be a gateway into the universe of Web3 content. Over the past year, Binance Square went from 1,200 to 11,000 creators and from under 700K to 1.6M active daily users.
Security and Compliance
Binance continued to invest in its compliance technology, processes, and talent, spending $213M in 2023, up 35 percent from the previous year’s $158M. As of the end of the year, it holds licenses, registrations, and authorizations in 18 jurisdictions around the world – more than ever before.
Ramping up its collaboration with global crime fighters to tackle illicit activity involving digital assets, Binance responded to 58,000 law enforcement requests this year, held 120 training sessions to share expertise with law enforcement agents, and supported the authorities in solving a number of high-profile cases that resulted in criminals and terrorists getting arrested, billions in ill-gotten funds seized, and international criminal networks dismantled.
To further ensure the safety of its users, Binance furthered its platform security measures and ran a series of security-focused educational campaigns. At the end of the year, the value of its SAFU fund, designed to protect users in the case of emergencies, stood at $1.2B.
Binance’s proof-of-reserves (POR) system increased the number of supported assets from 9 in 2022 to 31 in 2023, allowing anyone to ensure that we always back user assets at a 1:1 ratio, plus additional reserves.
Making Web3 Accessible
In 2023, product and user experience improvements across decentralized finance (DeFi), blockchain gaming, and SocialFi attracted new users into the universe of Web3 applications.
Responding to the demand for accessible and user-friendly gateways to the decentralized Web, Binance launched Binance Web3 Wallet – a self-custodial wallet integrated directly into the Binance app, allowing users to manage their crypto funds, execute token swaps across multiple chains, earn yields, and interact with a variety of blockchain platforms. In just a few weeks, Binance users have created millions of Web3 wallets.
Binance Labs, its venture capital and investment arm, continued to identify and support projects with demonstrated potential to unlock the benefits of Web3 and facilitate its mass adoption. This year, investments have focused on infrastructure and tooling powered by zero-knowledge proof cryptography, Web3 gaming, and innovations in DeFi. More than 2000 startups globally applied to participate in Binance Labs’ incubation and acceleration programs in 2023, with 36 of them receiving support.
Binance shares: While our numbers look strong this year, it is something impossible to quantify that we consider our greatest achievement: maintaining the trust of our growing community, which is fundamental to our mission of advancing the freedom of money globally. In 2023, users came first for Binance – and they always will.
About Binance
Binance is the world’s leading blockchain ecosystem and cryptocurrency infrastructure provider with a financial product suite that includes the largest digital asset exchange by volume. Trusted by millions worldwide, the Binance platform is dedicated to increasing the freedom of money for users, and features an unmatched portfolio of crypto products and offerings, including: trading and finance, education, data and research, social good, investment and incubation, decentralization and infrastructure solutions, and more. For more information, visit: https://www.binance.com