In early August, the Wall Street Journal issued a report that surprised sundry analysts and investors across the digital currency landscape: Despite China’s ban on crypto sales, that nation remains by far the largest market for Binance, still the world’s dominant exchange despite the recent onslaught from U.S. and overseas regulators. According to internal documents the story’s authors reviewed, as well as information gleaned from current and former employees, Binance in May hosted $90 billion in trades for Chinese customers. The Journal’s sources disclosed those transactions accounted for 20% of Binance’s total volumes, dwarfing the intake for second-place South Korea ($55 billion), and third-ranked Turkey ($40 billion).
The Journal story broke important news in revealing China’s crucial importance to Binance’s business, long after Beijing first banned its site in 2017, and made all crypto trading illegal in 2021. But the findings also provide a potential guide in gauging Binance’s annual revenues. Jiangsu-born chief Changpeng “CZ” Zhao hasn’t disclosed Binance’s turnover for several years, and financial information on the exchange is so cloudy that analysts aren’t even posting estimates.
