In July 2017, a little-known crypto startup raised $15 million through an initial coin offering. Within months, it became one of the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world. By 2021, it was processing more trading volume than several traditional stock exchanges combined. That startup was Binance.

Binance was founded in 2017 by Changpeng Zhao (widely known as CZ), a developer. The company launched during the height of the 2017 crypto boom, raising funds via an ICO for its native token, Binance Coin ($BNB ).

At the time, China had been a dominant force in crypto trading. However, in September 2017, Chinese regulators banned ICOs and ordered exchanges to shut down. Binance responded by rapidly relocating operations offshore, initially to Japan and later operating through a distributed global structure.

There were three main factors that contributed to this rapid rise of Binance:

1) Extremely low trading fees

2) Rapid listing of new altcoins

3) A fast and high-performance trading engine capable of handling surges in demand.

At a time when exchanges frequently crashed under heavy traffic, Binance’s infrastructure offered reliability.

Today, more than 1/3rd of crypto trading happens on Binance. This signifies the dominant position that Binance holds in the crypto world.