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CEO Connect: May Edition
Recorded: May 19, 2025 Duration: 0:58:30Space Recording
Short Summary
In a recent CEO Connect session, Richard discussed the significance of Bitcoin Pizza Day, Binance's strategic partnerships, and the rise of stablecoins, emphasizing the platform's commitment to driving growth and innovation in the crypto industry. With over 270 million users globally, Binance continues to lead in mainstream adoption and community engagement.
Full Transcription
Music Thank you. Music Thank you. I okay we are live hello everybody happy monday a huge thank you to all of you that are tuning in and joining us
for this May CEO Connect with Richard. We'll kick things off in just a second.
okay well first of all great to see so many of you joining us for the may edition of CEO connect
it's always so fantastic to do these and to get to touch base with you all the community
and also it's a great opportunity for you all to ask some questions to our very own CEO Richard
which we'll get to in just a moment.
So just to give you a run through for those of you
that are joining for our first CEO Connect,
you are able during this live stream
to ask any questions directly to Richard.
And in order to do so, it's really simple.
All you have to do is request to speak
and we'll pick some of you throughout the hour.
If you don't want to speak, but you do have a question, you can also leave a comment on the stream.
And myself and also Rohan, who's joining from the Binance account, will be keeping a very close eye and asking some of those questions.
So first of all, a welcome to Richard. Richard, thank you for joining us today. How are you doing?
I'm good, Jessica. I'm excited to be here. Thanks everyone for joining. To all the friends and
Vinancians out there, it's great to see all of you here.
And thank you so much as well for taking time out of a very busy week. And we'll get to that
in just a second because for those that are unfamiliar this week is particularly special in crypto because it
is bitcoin pizza day is this week um and that is a huge milestone so richard i'm going to kick
things off with our first question for today bitcoin pizza day is very significant for the
industry it is coming up this week on thursday i believe marking 15 years since the first Bitcoin transaction for two pizzas.
So Richard, I'm really curious to hear from you. How do you reflect on crypto's industry and growth
since then? And also when it comes to Binance and what roles Binance is playing in really driving
mainstream adoption? So first of all, happy Bitcoin Pizza Day everyone. I hope everybody will enjoy the Pizza Day.
I do think that if you think back 15 years ago, it's quite incredible to think that
Lazio Hayes paid 10,000 BTC for two pizzas and that started a revolution.
So today, crypto is much, much more than pizza payment.
It is about empowering financial inclusion globally.
So we have been driving mainstream adoption.
Today, we have more than 270 million users globally on our platform.
We try to build a very vibrant and robust ecosystem with different use cases,
supporting different use cases coming through, including things like crypto payments,
stable coins, big use cases coming through, including things like crypto payments, stable coins, big use cases.
But I have personally seen how crypto has transformed lives,
especially for the underbanked and unbanked.
So today I was just at a video recording.
It's professor versus professional.
So it's a professor from a university versus a professional from an industry, which is myself.
And we are debating how crypto and how blockchain in general have transformed the life of so many.
I was just relating that, you know, I've been in the financial industry for 31 years now.
And 31 years ago, all the central banks and all the financial institutions, I still remember,
say that we need to bring about much more financial inclusion.
But even today,
1.4 billion people in the world
are still underbanked or unbanked, right?
So crypto exists
because it solves all these problems.
Solve the unbanked problem,
allows for domestic payment,
cross-border remittance
at a fraction of the cost
of what financial institutions charge,
allow for a proper store of value.
And all these incredible stories that we see are just testament of how far we've come.
Fantastic.
Thank you so much.
And that was a great answer.
I think it's really insightful to also hear back on the story of Bitcoin Pizza Day.
And you've said it yourself there, how far we've come as an industry is very exciting.
I hope those two pizzas are really good
because they're really expensive in today's context.
Yeah, we hope they at least had some good toppings
to get their money's worth.
Fantastic. Thank you, Richard.
So now it's time to hand the floor over
to our amazing community
the binancians and anyone that is listening in um kenneth we have given you the floor uh so welcome
to the live stream do you have a question for richard hello everyone can you hear me guys
yes we can hear you thank you richard and jessica well uh anyway once again my name is kenneth i'm an active
staff from tcg world and i only have one question that is puzzling in my mind uh richard um i mean
given the regulatory pressures and uh market volatility i mean uh what uh what concrete steps is Binance taking to ensure long-term stability and trust for both retail and institutional investors?
Well, thanks for that, Kenneth.
I think it is a very, very broad question.
So, my view is this, right?
Regulatory pressure, I think some will view it as regulatory pressure.
I welcome this because if you look back to, I mean, I entered crypto around 2017.
If you compare it to the landscape between 2025 and 2017, it's so much better now.
I think everybody will agree with me on that front, right?
So 2017 is not only a regulatory pressure. There's a lot of, in my view, unfair treatment.
Crypto is sidelined.
In many sense, people say it's oppressed in that sense.
So the landscape today is so, so much better.
We have come a long way.
And we have been working with so many different governments
around the world by now.
You have seen some of those announcements coming through.
I was just on TV the other day highlighting that we have a partnership with the Kingdom of Bhutan,
where, you know, if you use Binance Pay, you can pay for everything from your flight tickets to your hotels,
to local merchants, to meals, etc.
So everything there.
And it's a government initiative by the Ministry of Tourism.
And we are seeing many of this.
It's not only that, but we're also helping countries around the world
set up their own crypto reserves now.
So the landscape today is so, so much better.
And by now, Binance is the most regulated at global exchange.
We are regulated in 21, 22
different countries around the world.
We continue with government
to try to give greater clarity
onto this space.
I do think that, you know,
for the early adopters,
the first 5%,
they can come in
without the certainty of regulations.
But for mass adoption to come through,
and we are seeing that coming through in a big way, right,
from both institutions and retail,
there'll be greater cause for much greater clarity,
much greater regulations of this space.
And we're working very closely with governments around the world.
So we are in a much better landscape now.
And globally, if you look at what's happening in the United States with President Trump
really pushing the agenda on both the investment front as well as regulatory clarity front,
from a competitive landscape, many of the other governments around the world will be
forced to really firstly embrace this space and secondly give regulatory clarity because
they'll understand that if they don't do that that they will fall far more and more behind the united states in terms of embracing
crypto and u.s is really the deepest capital markets in the world you have so many innovation
taking place in the united states so they can't afford to really um stand back and watch right so
i do think that and this is based on what my conversation
with governments are,
a lot more coming on and embracing this space.
So I'm bullish.
Fantastic.
Thank you, Richard.
And thank you, Kenneth, for the great question.
Okay, let me add someone else to the stream.
So we have another question for you
um and i'm handing the stage over now to km crypto on let's see if he's able to connect
and join in and a huge thank you to everyone that is writing the questions through in the
comments as well so we'll also get through those let me see if we can connect
to km if not i will ask one of the questions that has been written in
okay so we have this question here from edson which is binance has introduced features like
binance square and Binance Wallet.
What new products or enhancements can we expect in 2015 and how are they going to affect users?
A good question on product focus there.
So what's your take, Richard?
So I think everyone knows by now that we are constantly innovating, constantly evolving to serve the community much better, right?
So the users are always
at the heart of what we do.
Binance Square was mentioned.
It has now become a very vibrant hub
for crypto content conversation.
And we are doubling down on it in 2025.
We're allowing for more creator tools
with greater and deeper integration
into our ecosystem, including
the recent launch of Trading Live and Trading Sharing Card.
So for those that have not explored these features, please do.
It's very exciting.
On the wallet side, I think our wallet now supports much more chains, offering things
like one-click staking, much more enhanced security.
We're also building community rewards features
like exclusive TGE.
So by being engaged with Binance,
we don't need help to inform you.
We want to benefit you.
So our goal is to keep building together.
The crypto industry is still young.
We want to be the best platform for our global users.
And this is the best platform that you can be
for your crypto journey. So we continue to innovate. We platform for global users. And this is the best platform that you can be for your crypto journey.
So we continue to innovate.
We have many good ideas, so keep all the good ideas coming, right?
So for example, Binance Alpha.
Binance Alpha is our response to community demand for allowing for early access
to promising crypto projects.
And I think everyone will agree that, you know,
Binance Alpha has been a game changer so far.
So much so that I think other platforms
are starting to look at whether they can imitate
the success of Binance Alpha, right?
So maybe for those that's uninitiated on Binance Alpha,
we carefully select projects based on their innovation,
their team strength, market potential.
So even though listings are not guaranteed,
it has, Binance Alpha has proven to be a great
pre-listing discovery tool, right?
So we launched in December 2024.
We have now launched Binance Alpha points as well.
So it ensures that the most engaged users get priority
in terms of high demand campaigns,
including Alpha airdrops and token generation events,
the TGEs.
But as I always say,
do your own research before diving in.
But, you know, explore all these exciting features
and we have more in store for you.
Excellent.
Okay, time for our next community question. So I'm now going to welcome to the stage. We have Bplab Day. So let's see if he is able to connect and ask us a question. Bplab, welcome to the stream. Thank you so much for joining. I'll hand the stage over to you now to ask a question to Richard.
I'll hand the stage over to you now to ask a question to Richard.
Oh, BPUB, you're on.
Oh, yeah.
Okay.
Can you ask it?
Yeah.
Thanks.
Good evening, everyone.
Good evening, Richard.
Good evening.
Yeah, I'm fine.
Thank you for having me here.
Actually, my question is very simple and i'm i have seen
recent times why binance is more focusing on alpha trading than normal binance spot trading nowadays
i i okay so your question is why we are more focused we don. We are not focused. What we are focused on is the user. So what we focus
on is really offering you the best features for each of the different products that we have. So
I think for people that knows our platform well, you know, we have different things on our platform
from sport to futures to earn to alpha. And we keep experimenting. We keep introducing new features based on user needs
and user demands and what we hear from the community. So we are not focusing on anything
other than making sure that we satisfy our user needs and we continue to innovate. And if you
have inputs, comments, feedbacks, proposals for us to do better
in terms of improving features
or you want to see new things
that we have not introduced yet
or new ways of doing things
or new way of connecting things,
feel free to let us know.
Your inputs are very, very important.
So let me correct that perception.
We are not just focusing on alpha.
We continue to drive all our business lines
to make sure we serve our users to the best of our ability.
Thank you for your answer.
Fantastic.
Okay, thank you for the question.
Okay, let's see who else is next.
I always love doing these because everyone's ex-prof i think is just very fantastic um so i'm now going to hand the floor over to bms who has got a cat wearing
sunglasses with pixels as your profile photo bm welcome to the stream great to have you thank
you for joining in um i'm now going to hand the floor over for you to ask a question to richard
going to hand the floor over for you to ask a question to Richard. Hey VMS can you hear us?
Okay let me see if there is someone else we've got quite a lot of you that have
requests so just bear with us while we add you guys in. Okay so Global Web 3, we are now bringing you onto the floor. Welcome to the live stream.
Thank you for tuning in. Can you hear us okay or is it still connecting?
Hi, Global Web 3, welcome to the stream. Can you hear us okay? are you able to ask your question for richard yeah can you guys hear
me yes we can here is it um my question is about web3 and like web3 wallet and sex like moving
forward how how you guys gonna blend it together like i know like alpha is already live but what
are the next feature that we are going to look for?
Thanks for that question.
I think you're very motivated on the centralized exchange and DeFi. So as you mentioned, Binance Alpha is our way of allowing for much easier access.
We offer much earlier, easy access.
We discover good potential projects out there
to give our users early indication of what's coming.
We do recognize that DeFi is growing, but so is CeFi.
I don't think they're mutually exclusive.
There will always be pockets of centralization,
even in the decentralized space.
So what we are doing is we constantly adapt and upgrade
so that we can provide people with the tools
that they need to succeed in this space.
So what we want to do is to make sure
that we continue to be a very effective and efficient bridge
between what they call traditional finance and DeFi space,
facilitating the flow between those sides.
We always try to see what gaps are there, what are the needs out there for the users,
and close those gaps.
So the more we can close those gaps, the much better it is for users.
So as you mentioned, Alpha is one of our attempts to do that.
We continue to explore and experiment on other things,
but as and when they are ready, we'll roll them out.
But if you have any ideas, things that you'd
be interested to see, we'll be very interested to hear
from you as well on that point.
Yep, would love to have some DeFi5 support of like yield and etc like right now it's only on
sex right but it will be great like if someone want to do d5 rather than going on sex and having
a little bit of yield from it i think those are things that we have gotten some feedback and we
i mean in any give on any given day we receive a lot of feedback.
I can assure you that our team worked tirelessly in terms of reviewing those to see whether it's something that we can implement and introduce, right?
And we put in resources as and when we decide that it's something that user wants, there's enough demand for it.
It's something that's worth investing our resources to make sure that we bring those about for our users so please make sure that you keep all your interesting ideas coming to us
yep sure thank you thank you great thank you global web 3 and and thanks richard uh the next
question we have has been written in and it's very timely and relevant for this week particularly with this week being
bitcoin pizza day week the question is is it possible for binance to adopt a technology that
allows users to spend their stable coin in any merchant just by tapping their cards
well ideally i mean if you if you think about ideally, the wallet over time should be able to replace your banking account.
So you can receive your pay in terms of stablecoin.
You can do different form of payments, whether it's to your local vendors or globally.
That must be the target that we're working on.
If you look at Bhutan's adoption of Binance Pay just for tourism, I think that's groundbreaking.
But we're working with other countries.
I think we have announced several initiatives globally with different countries
that are ready to embrace this space in a big way,
which includes the likes of Kyrgyzstan.
So we'll continue to work, continue to explore,
continue to work with merchants as well on that front.
And hopefully, over time, the entire experience will be one that's
extremely seamless, extremely cost effective and efficient for the users.
Excellent.
And I think the news coming out last week about Binance Pay in Bhutan was
particularly exciting for a lot of the community as well and is really telling with what Binance Pizza Day and spending crypto is all about.
OK, it's time to hand it over to our next speaker. And I have invited to the stage Crypto Rakib.
So welcome to the stream. I hope you can hear us OK. And if you would like to unmute yourself and ask your question to Richard.
Crypto Rakeem, can you hear us okay?
Okay, if not, let me add the floor over to Crypto Chris and see if he is able to ask
us a question.
Okay, and while we-
Can you hear us?
I think he's connecting.
While we do that, let me go through some of the questions that we do have in the.
In this stream that has been written,
so this question is talking about the markets and asking is out season coming or not?
So Richard over to you there.
What's your what's your take?
I am.
I'm not privileged or well informedinformed enough on that front.
But if you look at various market commentators, right?
So if you look at what's happening to Bitcoin,
I think Bitcoin has achieved a level of stability
above 100,000,
really because the institutions are coming in.
And in periods of market uncertainty,
if you look at the performance of Bitcoin,
it has held up very, very well
versus all the other traditional assets.
So versus gold, it has outperformed by a wide margin
since Liberation Day in the US
and since the beginning of the year
versus the likes of S&P 500 or Nasdaq.
Again, it has outperformed by a wide margin.
So I think that gave both the institutions as well as the retail confidence.
And given traditionally, Bitcoin is at an almost all-time high
in terms of dominance within the crypto sector,
that confidence should filter down to the other tokens.
So we are seeing some price action of the other tokens.
But these are market forces at work. other tokens right so we are seeing some price action of the other tokens but you know this
these are market forces at work I can't I can't make those predictions I think many of you who
are traders I'm a hodler I think many of you who are traders would would know much better than me
but I'm in for the in for the long term so I normally I don't trade so much so i'll be very pleased if you tell me whether it's coming fantastic thank you richard hodlers unite okay we have now got nikita joining us on this stream
so nikita welcome thank you for joining and requesting to ask a question um i'll hand the
stage over to you now do you have a question for Richard? Yes hi Jessica thank you so much so Richard I wanted to ask about this new thing so Binance has recently launching has been launching
new tools for institutional investors and has upgraded the Web3 wallet they have been investing
in Pro Tools and Simplify user experiences my question, how is Binance planning to make these tools accessible
and useful for everyday users
who are just starting their journey,
especially in emerging markets like India?
Thank you so much for that. Namaste.
Thank you so much.
I would say this, right?
So we are a global platform.
So the needs of users, let's say from South Asia,
will be quite different from the needs of a user in Latin America,
will be quite different from the need of users from, let's say, MENA and Europe, right?
So there are different needs, and we see those different needs coming through
from different regions or different countries. And later on with that we have different vip tiers right so from you know the
beginner in terms of retail people that just trying to tiptoe their way into crypto and understand
this sector to people that you know are very big traders very big investors, so it could be the top tier institutions.
So we serve a broad magnitude of clients,
and in every segment of clientele,
their needs are slightly different.
So what we aim to do is firstly understand the needs
of all these different clientele
in different layers of part of the clientele spectrum
and try to serve their needs much better.
You mentioned institutional engagement and products, right?
So just on that front, I'm sure you know,
we introduced things like banking triparty last year with Mirror RSP.
And that allows institutions to store their collateral assets
with tier one banks
or co-storage and then mirroring these assets to Binance for trading or for institutional
loan.
We also launched things like Binance Wealth, which is a platform for financial advisors
and wealth manager to onboard their private banking clients into crypto.
So it allows them to offer comprehensive management advisory through
tools to help their private wealth clients. And then this year, we continue to push out things like
Binance Fund Account. It offers very tailored services. You provide things like Omnibus
account infrastructure for asset managers to pull investor asset together. Right. But then these are more institutional type too,
that may not be relevant for retail.
And what retail are looking for
are things like, you know,
better Binance wallet enhancement,
better opportunities for them to partake and get access
to tokens with potential much earlier and these are areas that we
have pushed out things like binance alpha we have continued to push out things like binance square
where people can come together create content engage commute have proper conversations have
very deep integration as you continue to learn much more.
Binance Academy, again, is another important platform in which we engage users that wish to be much, to be dedicated in this field and know much more.
So there are different tools out there for different type of clienteles, and we try to
tailor them as much as possible based on the needs that we see
in the different spectrum of clientele.
I hope that answered your question.
Again, every country is slightly different, every region is slightly different.
So we need to make sure that we engage the users effectively.
All right, that makes sense.
Thank you, Nikita.
Okay, next question we have has been written in.
This is quite a nice one.
So a great chance to pick the CEO of Binance's brain here.
Richard, we have a question on what would be your advice
for users who want to be a part of the Binance team?
Meaning to join us?
I think so.
Oh, learn as much as crypto as possible.
Be very, in our term, very hardcore, very committed.
Know what you want to do.
And then, you know, write into us.
We are always recruiting.
We're always looking for good people.
We are looking for very energetic people
that have passion for this industry people that
believe in our mission which is to support freedom of money so if you are very passionate
in this space and you want to make a difference we are we are here for you
excellent thank you um and another question that we have that has been written in. So,
some countries still don't allow crypto exchanges like Binance to operate due to regulatory
restrictions. How does Binance plan to secure licenses or work with governments in these
regions to responsibly open access to crypto? That's a great question. So, first of all,
every country will have
different policy considerations,
different agenda
on their political place.
So, we can't change
their policy agenda.
We can't change
their political agenda.
So, I think let's make it clear.
What we can do
is to actively engage them,
to highlight to them that both crypto, Bitcoin,
as well as things like blockchain, together with AI,
they are the foundational level of technology and they are the transformation technology
that will change every economic subsector
in the world going forward.
So if a government is serious about talent pool,
attracting the best and brightest,
if it's serious about economic growth,
bringing foreign direct investments,
creating new utility and creating jobs,
new industry that will be blossoming into the future,
they should invest time and energy
to get their policies around blockchain, crypto, and AI correct.
So those are our advice.
And then if the government say, look, this is something that we believe in, we want to do so, we will really help them.
So in terms of rule formulation, if you look at today, two-thirds of global regulators still have not formulated
any rules to govern this space.
So if they're interested
in rule formulation,
we help them with quite a lot
of experience by now
being the most regulated exchange.
If they're interested
on the investment side of things,
they want to set up
a crypto reserve
to invest the country's
sovereign wealth and assets,
we help them on that front
and we have gotten involved with a few countries on that front.
If they want to do things, partnership like Finance Pay,
to really support the country's payment infrastructure,
we will do that as we have evidence
with the likes of Bhutan, Kyrgyzstan, etc.
So we will continue to see how we can really help them
embrace this sector. And the more we will continue to see how we can really help them embrace this sector.
And the more we can do to help push forward, better understanding of this sector, the value
that it brings, and how to bring about much greater crypto adoption and deployment, the better it is
for everyone. So that's what we do in terms of national engagement with not only politicians,
you know, policymakers, regulators, but also law enforcement agencies.
Great, thank you.
And we have now brought to the stage Antonio Crypto.
So Antonio, welcome to the stream.
Thank you for joining.
I'll now ask you kindly to unmute yourself and ask a question to Richard.
Well, thank you, Jessica, for the chance to meet.
Yeah, Richard, previously I asked about adoption in the tap-to-pay mechanism for spending
the crypto asset, like from users to the merchants. Currently, it is off-chain, like controlled
by the centralized exchange.
Is it possible to apply it, to implement it
into on-chain, like real peer-to-peer?
OK, so I think anything is possible.
So for our now side, we of course focus on bringing value and bring utility to our users.
So things like Binance Pay is something that our users want.
And if you look at the amount that's transacted since we introduced Binance Pay, we see very good volume coming through.
The usage, the use case,
the countries adopting it are increasing.
You have more and more merchants accepting that.
And we want to support everybody
that wish to make use of this
very fast, very efficient,
very cost-efficient way of payment.
So we are going to support that
and other ways. so we do have users
coming to us to say that you know they want things like binance debit card etc so within our means
and ability to do so and subject to a country's regulations and rules we always try to do those
things right so these are these are things that our user wants,
and we want to make sure that we're as supportive as possible.
On the other part, I think you have to explore.
I'm sure other people are exploring all those.
And hopefully, you'll see more and more innovative use case coming true.
Well, thank you, Richard.
Thank you, Antonio, for the question.
Okay, so next question we have has been written in the comments.
So thank you for submitting.
The question is, why stablecoins?
What is the reason behind the integration of more stablecoins?
So Richard, handing it over to you, what's your take?
Well, I think it is a realisation.
So, I mean, I've been involved in financial services for more than 30 years now.
So if you look at it, the current financial architecture and infrastructure is pretty archaic.
If you have to rethink the future and you have to build something from scratch today to serve the needs of today's environment, you wouldn't build something like that.
So if you think about it, if you do transfer cross-border, it takes you two to three days through traditional methods for it to reach the recipient. The banks, the financial institutions, the wire transfer house,
the remittance house charge you
north of 10%, 10 to 15%
for low amount remittance,
anything below $500.
So let's say you remit $500,
they'll charge you $75.
So a huge chunk of what you want to remit
to your loved ones and families and recipients
get taken away in fees.
There's a much better way, which is via blockchain and crypto, right?
So the banks start to realize that now,
which is why if you look at all the announcements coming out,
the financial institutions are starting to embrace this
because it solved a fundamental efficiency problem
and it solved a huge cost problem.
So if you rethink how the architecture will look like,
you look like what Stablecoin has done, right?
You can do transfer in an instantaneous basis.
It's immutable.
Nobody can change those records.
The recipient received the money almost on an instantaneous basis
at a fraction of the cost of what today is being charged, right?
So the beauty of that has caused the likes of Fidelity,
the likes of Standard Chartered to all announce their own stablecoin endeavor.
So we're going to see much more because I think as more and more financial institutions
get to come to know the beauty and the opportunities available in this space,
they all start to embrace it in a big way.
And we have been approached
by many different players to partner them,
to work with them,
and we are always evaluating proposals
to bring value to our users.
Such an exciting time.
Thank you, Richard.
I'm now going to hand the stage over to Gordenzio,
who is joining us now on the stream.
So thank you so much for requesting to ask Richard a question.
I'm now going to hand the stage over to you to ask away.
Well, thank you very much, Jessica.
Thank you very much, Richard, for doing such an amazing call with us.
call with us. My question was about real world assets organization, but just a few moments ago,
Richard almost gave me a reply, but I will try to ask in any way, because maybe we will have more
insights from you, Richard. As you well know, real world asset organization gains a lot of momentum from bonds to real estate.
And my question is, how is Binance positioning itself to support institutional investors that are entering the space?
And do you see RWA as a key driver for the next phase of institutional adoption?
Oh, thanks for that.
I think this is a very, very good question.
So if you look at RWA, I think increasingly you also see a lot more institutions embracing that.
So I will give you my view, but the diversity of views out there, I'll just give you one take of it.
Please also try to see whether the other viewpoints are valid. My viewpoints may not be
totally valid on that front. So if you look at the entire, again, if you look at banking and
financial infrastructure, so today if you trade a security, a board, a commodity. A lot of security trading on traditional exchanges,
the settlement is T plus 2, T plus 3, meaning that the trading,
the clearing, the settlement takes, the trading takes place today,
but the clearing and settlement takes place two to three days later.
So there always exists clearing and settlement risk for financial institutions involved,
and they have to find ways to offset that risk.
But if you adopt blockchain,
you eliminate instantaneously the clearing and settlement risk.
You don't have to hold so much capital on your books
to clear those risks.
You don't need additional middle and back office staff
to do all the reconciliation.
So you're going to save substantial amount of money.
So from a cost efficiency front, it makes total sense to move into things
like real asset tokenization for financial institutions from banks.
So which is why you're seeing things like tokenized treasuries, credit,
yield bearing products, etc.
Are they suitable as a trading product?
And, you know, I see many arguments out there to say that by doing RWA,
you inject new liquidity into a particular product.
I beg to differ on that front.
So if you think about it, does RWA solve an existing problem?
In many cases, they don't.
Because products similar to what you see in RWA
really exist in traditional finance.
So for example, people say,
you know, if I do a tokenization
of a real estate,
I can bring much more liquidity.
But if you look at in the real world,
you already have real estate
investment trust rates
existing for the longest time.
So other than the middle and back end issue
that I mentioned in terms of trading
and clearing settlement,
such product already exists.
They offer yields.
They sort of try to break real estate
into a much smaller denomination
for investment by retail.
So they're already available.
So does it really solve a problem?
The problem has been solved by and large
through securitization and risk.
So are they adding something new
into the liquidity equation?
My view is no.
So, you know, things like,
I've heard this for six, seven years now,
trying to tokenize real estate
and make them much more liquid.
I have not really seen in action how that has taken off in a big way, right?
But I stand to be corrected if you have come across a much stronger use case.
But to me, a very strong use case are things like tokenized treasury.
And I can explain why.
So today, for many of the non-crypto savvy people, if they put their money in traditional banks, they earn interest of 1% or less.
But if we tokenize treasuries, which is like 5%, immediately, if they pump their money into those tokenized treasuries, and in the past, the treasuries have very high denomination.
You have to buy in denomination of $250,000 or $500,000.
But if you tokenize them into bite size for investors,
then today if I have $1,000, instead of me parking it in the bank deposit,
I park it in the tokenized treasury.
I can unlock value immediately.
Those are use cases
and they can unlock value
and they solve a problem.
So to me,
those type of assets will take off
and you'll see much greater use cases.
But RWA is not going to solve
liquidity issue
for a lot of asset class around Lobo,
despite what other people claim.
And that's my view.
So are we going to introduce things like that?
We are always exploring what our users want
and always exploring potential partnership.
So stay tuned as and when,
if we do enter into any of those partnerships
in parts of the world that we have licensed to offer RWA
because normally they touch on securities, law, and regulation.
We'll be willing to offer those to our users in those parts of the world.
I hope I answered your question in a long-winded way.
I don't know whether you're subtracting my view as well
that definitely explains a lot thank you thank you very much richard thanks again most welcome
fantastic great question thank you so much uh now we have a question that's been written in
regarding cryptocurrency events and they're saying uh binance blockchain week has become a flagship
event for the crypto industry what can the community expect from 2025 big question a lot
of expectations so richard what's your thoughts what can we expect so i hope every one of you
know what binance blockchain week is about right so to us it's an event that we come together and celebrate together.
Another milestone, another important year within crypto as we continue to build together.
So we try to make sure every edition is better than the last, is bigger than the last.
For those that have attended the 2024 edition, I think you agree that it's very exciting
where we bring together builders,
we bring together institutions,
our community users,
NGOs, regulators, policymakers.
So you can expect a lot of,
at such events,
you can expect a lot of networking,
a lot of community get-together,
a lot of deep dive,
interesting panels, bookshop.
We tend to make some big announcements
around Binance Blockchain Week.
So stay tuned for the big announcements.
But at the end of it,
it's about bringing our community together
and working together as we continue to build.
And we want to celebrate you
in this journey with us.
And we are very, very in this journey with us.
And we are very, very appreciative of our global community
that really support
and make Binance Blockchain Week
such a huge success.
So I'm very, very thankful
to all of you on that front.
Great answer.
And for anyone that does want to know more,
there's also the Amazon Prime documentary
of Build in the Future Binance Blockchain Week where quite a lot of our Binance angels are now Amazon Prime movie stars, which is always so fantastic to see.
So for anyone that hasn't yet given it a watch, absolutely recommend you doing so.
OK, I've now invited Gordes to this stage to ask a question.
So, Gordes, thank you so much for requesting to speak.
If you'd like to unmute yourself and ask your question for Richard. Thank you.
Hello. So, I hope you, Richard, this message trains you well. My name is Gaud. I represent
Gaud token as Solana based on cryptocurrency to empower the Asian community.
Haiti is a small country in the Caribbean.
So I would like to ask you a quick question regarding the possibilities of collaboration
of future integration with Binance.
Those Binance plan to support more Solana based token extracellators focus on financial
inclusion and vision like this.
So what are the minimum requirements for local community drive and token like Google, like me?
So to apply for listening integration with services such as Binance Page or Binance Code,
goes to the team.
So we have different teams working on those things, right?
So I think offhand, we can connect you with those teams to have a discussion.
Thanks for that.
Okay.
So we can move on to the next one.
Okay, fantastic.
Okay, I'm now going to add Trevor to the stage.
Trevor, thank you for joining the stream. Just checking that you can hear us all okay.
And if you would like to ask your question for Richard.
Hi, Trevor, can you hear us okay?
Trevor is muted.
Okay, yes. Trevor, can you, oh yeah oh yeah okay there you go can you hear us okay
okay no um let me go through some of the written in questions uh okay if you bear with me we have
one question here which is hello richard what steps does Binance take to protect investors from fraudulent operations?
Well, that's a very, very important question.
As you can see, scams are on the rise.
So we take a lot of pain to make sure that user protection is always the top of our priority.
We see a rise in sophisticated scams like phishing attacks,
even people impersonating our support team.
So to combat all this,
we continue to enhance our security protocol,
including AI-driven fraud detection.
So there are two layers of security.
One is the platform layer security
in which we are responsible for.
And we continue to build multiple layers
of security features, encryption,
to make sure that, you know,
all the assets are properly protected, are safe.
But there's also a user level security,
which, you know, we can only do so much.
We keep doing outreach to our users
through educational campaigns,
to Binance Academy,
to teach them things like
how do you spot things like fake links,
how do you secure your wallet,
how do you verify URLs,
making sure that you never share your zip phrase,
always use two-factor authentication,
things like that.
But vigilance is always very important.
It's the first line of defense.
And we are here to support you on that front.
So I cannot stress enough on that front.
There's a lot of conversation.
Make sure that you know all the security tips and security features
and make sure that your properties are protected on that front.
It's very important.
Great answer. features and make sure that your properties are protected on that front is very important great answer thank you so much okay we're down to our final few minutes a huge thank you to everyone that has submitted questions so far we've brought michael onto the stream so michael thank
you for joining would you like to unmute yourself and ask your question for richard thank you
to unmute yourself and ask your question to Richard. Thank you.
Hi, guys. Thanks for bringing me up. Can you hear me?
Yes, we can.
I have maybe a double-barreled question, and maybe Richard can.
I'll try to be as concise as I can.
I wasn't expecting to actually get up here, so thanks for giving me the stage.
I want to talk about the growth of meme coins in particular, how they've grown in the space since 2020 to the meme in general, to the general public.
I want to talk about how...
Is there a question?
Yes, there is, yes.
The question really is, how can memes bring more adoption?
How can they...
Sorry, again, I wasn't really expecting to come up on the stage,
but can you talk about the importance of intellectual property with meme coins
and how that can aid in the adoption of more retail users?
Okay, thanks for that.
So as a first principle, as a platform, we are agnostic, right?
But we want to support all different parts of the value chain within crypto, right?
So obviously meme is one area that excites users, excites new users,
especially the young crowd.
But it can be polarizing, right?
On the one hand,
people say, you know,
it's a fun way to understand,
to be engaged with your community,
et cetera, et cetera.
But there are also detractors out there
to say that, look,
what are the utilities?
Would it last more than one cycle?
Et cetera, et cetera, right? But as a platform provider, we try to be agnostic. what are the utilities? Would it last more than one cycle?
But as a platform provider,
we try to be agnostic,
we want to be embracing
of all the exciting parts
within the value chain,
of all the different adoption.
But my view is this,
so for it to continue to gain traction
over time, the utility aspect of it
has to be clearer
or the community aspect
has to be much stronger
in terms of embracing
the community aspect, right?
So it's either one of them
or both of them have to come together
for them to continue to last
through multiple cycles, right?
So again, we see that in action from the past.
So from ICO, IEOs, NFTs, DeFi summer.
So DeFi took more than one cycle to really build all the key utility
that we are seeing today, and those utilities are still being built.
Right?
So hopefully with MIM, again, it will go through the exploratory stage
and morph into something else.
So we do not know. It's still very early in the cycle.
So we are waiting and see what comes out of all these interesting projects as well.
Thanks, Richard.
Okay, thank you, Michael.
Last question we have has come through and it's asking us when it comes to Binance Pay
and partnerships, are there any more collaborations coming up and what has the recent collaboration
mean for crypto adoption?
Absolutely.
I think that's a very good question.
It's something that we always try to make sure that we push.
And again, we are doing global deployment.
Firstly, every global situation, every country situation is different.
The vendors that we have, the counterparts we have are different.
And all those are subject to discussion, engagement, and commercial agreement.
discussion, engagement and commercial agreement.
So you appreciate it is not easy.
So you appreciate it is not easy.
Where possible, we always try to roll it out
in as many places with as many vendors as possible
and with as many merchants,
but it really is subject to the local rules and regulations
and local environment.
But you will see all those announcements coming through
as and when we sign up a new
merchant or we push out a new country or new type of area that we are partnering with. You'll see
all those announcements coming through. And hopefully, I'm not quite sure where you are,
but hopefully where you are, you'll see much more coming to the marketplace to serve you better.
marketplace to serve you better.
Excellent.
And last question we have is,
I have one question.
How can upcoming projects
looking to build on BNB chain
be supported by Binance?
Well, I think you can get in touch
with the BNB team.
I think we have many exciting projects
that's being built on BNb chain today there's a dedicated
team that of resources that can help you navigate the landscape um and we always look to support
very good innovative interesting projects with good teams in place, innovative aspects, with good community engagement,
good security, etc.
So there are certain fundamental criteria
that we actually put out
on the Binance blog page,
even on our TG group, I believe.
We do highlight what we are looking out for
in terms of things like new listings,
how do you gain traction,
what are the things,
what are the parameters we are looking for.
But, you know, on the BNB front,
there's a dedicated team of people
on the BNB front
that really helps project
to try to be on those chains.
So you can feel free to reach out
to fellow colleagues over there.
Fantastic. Great.
Well, thank you so much for answering those questions.
A huge thank you to everyone in the community for submitting them.
They were excellent this time around.
Just before we wrap up, because I know we have a very busy week,
a lot of Binance initiatives for Bitcoin Pizza Day.
We'll also see you, Richard, on our global youtube channel on thursday so i might
try and get in a last question for you richard what's your favorite flavor of pizza wow
i love all sorts i love all sorts but i must say the strangely uh the best pizza i have so far um
i'm sure the italian friends will come and kill me,
but it's in New York, actually, for some reason.
I think the water there is just slightly different,
but I think the best pizza I have is in New York, strangely.
Excellent. I was not expecting that. Thank you so much.
Well, Richard, thank you for your time today.
It's an absolute pleasure to hear your insights.
A huge thank you to everyone in the community for asking questions today.
It was great to see so many of you join the stream and so many familiar faces.
And we'll have to catch you on the next one.
So thank you all so much and have a great rest of the week.
Thanks, everyone.
Thanks for joining.
Happy Pizza Day.
Happy Pizza Week.
Thank you, everyone. Thank you.
Host
Binance
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