Inside Binance

[Music] if I take this one you can sit in the middle yeah there we go good morning your excellencies ladies and gentlemen it's a pleasure to be here with Richard and Jeremy so I actually wanted to dive straight into the elephant in the room because the session is titled inside binance um so Richard why don't you explain why Jeremy's joining you today I think why don't we start Jeremy I think is excited we're going to announce a important partnership today excellent so we we can do it together Jeremy on that FR yeah sure absolutely we're going to just start with that it's a great thing to do so to set the scene what has been the relationship between your two companies so far and what are you here to announce well uh you know usdc has obviously been uh a a stable coin that's been on binance uh for a while um uh what we're announcing today is uh that Circle and binance have entered into a strategic partnership around usdc uh it's a very exciting partnership to drive widespread adoption of usdc on binance's platforms and products and um we're going to be collaborating on a lot of things in product and in the market and in new use cases for stable coins together uh so it's uh it's a very significant uh partnership for both of us congratulations so we're very trilled to enter into this partnership with circle which is one of the most trusted and Innovative company within the digital ecosystem on that front uh with usdc you you know a highly Innovative recognized product globally binance we are the largest crypto exchange globally to serve our users in terms of their crypto Journey so today we have close to 250 million users and customers globally on that front this year we unboarded close to 70 million new users which is a phenomenal growth right so so with this partnership uh we are looking forward to really working very closely with circle on that front and our users can look forward to more trading paths with usdc we're going to run much more promotion on that front and we are working very closely together to support Innovation and utility of stable coins and other crypto so we'll continue to push ahead with the crypto agenda and journey and support users in terms of their freedom of money globally amazing I just want to add just a little bit to that I think um I've had the opportunity to get to know Richard uh really well over the last year and the entire leadership team at binance and um it's obvious from the numbers that binance is an exceptional company uh but it's also a phenomenal team that is executing really well and so um something that I noted in in the actual official announcement which I don't know if it's gone out yet is the incredible commitment that binance has to product quality uh security operational excellence user centricity and it's one of the reasons why binance is in my view the largest true Financial super app in the world with over 240 million users and the breadth of what uh they do is is incredible and so when I think about the future of usdc and this future of stable coin in payments it's a great marriage right we we we want to see these extraordinary products which I think in the coming one to two years will have a billion users and and lighting up this uh this kind of new very very powerful medium so it's um you know it's really really extraordinary and and uh I think as Richard was also saying um we're still in the really early days of uh you know the use of stable coins right A lot of people think of stable coins coin says for trading and um but obviously the focus now is is this is going to change the way all money moves in the whole world and uh right now the percentage of the money movement that happens with stable coins versus every other thing is still quite small and so when we bring together these massive retail and institutional platforms with you know quality platforms like usdc we have a real chance at really transforming how money experience for every person in the world and I know um there's a lot on empowering Financial inclusion and new communities but while I've got you both here it would be great just to talk about some of the markets at the moment um retail investor interest and digital assets is is obviously growing exponentially and the aggregate market cap just breached 200 million stable coins earlier this week so how do you both balance that kind of capitalization with the momentum versus the short shortterm Market strategy yeah I think for any company that's looking at you know sustainable growth you have to focus on the long term focus on Innovation and utility but 2024 has been a landmark year right so if I begin 2024 by telling you that you know we're going to have ETF approved not only in the US but around the world with greater institutionalization adoption on that front you have all the big institutions starting to invest into this space including the largest asset manager in the world Black Rock You Know Larry fin R from a skeptic two years ago to a Believer now to having a crypto-friendly president right in the states and the administration is going to support that and you know us has outsized influence in terms of global regulations uh on that front so it's very exciting and we'll probably going to see a Bitcoin Reserve being set up uh if us set up a Bitcoin Reserve I'm sure the of the countries around the world will be looking at it very closely so I think we are still at the very early part of Journey 6 to 7% Global adoption you know I mentioned we have about close to 250 million users but things like stable coins things like crypto are very important part of financial inclusion one of the problems that crypto and stable coin solve is that in many parts of the world including in different countries around this region Financial inclusion is so low right 10 20% meaning 80% of people are shut out of the financial system you can't make effective payment you can't have proper store of wealth Etc on that FR and in the last few years a lot of people then Embrace crypto because that's the most efficient and effective way of doing payments uh when countries go through hyperinflationary situation in the last few years by holding on to stable coin they help their family preserve wealth they they can't access the banking system on that front so I've gone around the world many people come up to me to say thank you for supporting us in the crypto journey is the ability of accessing crypto for them that has been a trans very transformation for their family right in terms of preservation and they become much better off right so I think all these are interesting human exp the element of it that many people don't see going forward with the mainstream adoption of crypto now 6 to 7% if you look at what happened in the internet stage once you cross 6 to 7% the next 10% come very quickly right so I do foresee that the pace of adoption is going to be much faster the pace of innovation the pace of utility is going to be much faster over the course of next three years it brings us quite nicely onto crossborder efficiencies as well um one for probably both of you but how do we enable more potential for usdc to be adopted I mean we're in aw today but especially Middle Eastern markets yeah I'll take part of that I I think you know first is that usdc is already widely adopted All Around the World in over you know 150 countries and anyone with a web3 wallet can transact with other people um and and so we see the use of usdc moving around the world the same way that we see the use of email or messages moving around the world um I think you know five years from now the whole concept of a crossb payment will be like the concept of a crossb email like it just doesn't make any sense we're going to exchange value like we exchange information and it's just going to be seamless and when you put the you know I think the you know the best stable coin in the world in my view um uh in a platform like binance in the wallet in seamless payment experiences it's 240 million users today it could be 500 million users in a couple years those users are in every Market in the world and so you're going to see uh maybe not every Market but almost uh uh but but we'll see that movement of value happen um in extraordinary ways and it will be instant and it'll be effectively without fees and we're barely scratching the surface even of of what you can do with things like onchain effects and the kind of programmability of the money flows uh around the world so I think we're just scratching the surface now we're back in adgm home and it would just be really good to touch on some of the regulatory challenges and opportunities both of you see in the Market at the moment well incidentally I was in ad GM I was a CEO of financial services regulatory Authority when I discovered crypto in 2017 right so my office is just around there on the fourth floor so I'm just trying to say hi to all my ex colleagues it's very nice to see all of you again but you know adgm became one of the first in the world if not the region to really support the crypto agenda and we were working there in the office trying to come out with the framework and we push it out in 2018 to really support crypto adoption and if you look at what is happening in UAE in this region is very exciting on that front right so UAE has one of the highest adoption rate of crypto anywhere else in the world right so acting based on latest data I saw about 40% of the potion have some form of crypto exposure which is extremely high right is because of all this enabling framework regulations the government is very supportive very foresightful not only supporting blockchain but AI I mean if you look at president Trump appointing uh Ai and crypto Zar that means that these two important fundamental technology will drive the future shape of every economic sector going forward these are the two foundational technology right that every sub sector will use so it's extremely important what we hope to see is really more more governments around the world more Regulators around the world understanding the opportunities by embracing this sector coming out a framework giving trust to users and investors what's the certainty what's the consumer protection they can afford themselves to and that will will push through the next phas of adoption fantastic and I just want to to end the session by touching back on the announcement and asking what strengths do you think you both bring to the partnership I I think you know uh what Circle brings to the partnership with binance is a trusted compliant uh well-run dollar stable coin that has the best liquidity infrastructure in the world with deep integration into the banking sector uh access uh to the broad set of developer communities it's the most actively used digital Dollar in in the onchain defi uh world and um you know I I think uh we we work really well with Regulators around the world and I think we're going into a period where um you know compliance and Regulatory are more important and if we want this to be used by every person every household every corporation and every financial institution that's the way it's going to have to be run and that's the way circles built this from day one so I think that's a big part of of what we bring so stable coin is an important innovation and circle is one of the most trusted Innovative company in the digital asset space we are the largest crypto exchange we continue to support Innovation utility across the board um we now have 20 regulatory approval around the world more recently in places like India Argentina earlier in the year Indonesia Thailand at least goes on so we are the most regulated exchange globally and together this partnership will continue to support the very Innovative aspects of you know stable coins the U utility aspects and also we are looking forward to see how we continue push ahead with Innovation and we have that Global platform to do so so we look forward to working with circle with other important stakeholders within the ecosystem because crypto is still very early in this stage the more we can work on this significant partnership to really build a dynamic vibrant ecosystem the better off all of our will be fantastic well Richard great to have you back on the stage again and Jeremy I know you're going to be coming back here at 1 125 to talk about building the internet's Financial system so thank you very much gentlemen and um enjoy the rest of your today thanks thank you thank you oh [Music]