Deloise Bieker

Dear Binance Users, Partners, and Community Members:Greetings.As we sit down to write this, 2025 is drawing to a close. As we look back, this year’s letter feels different from any we’ve written before.We have spent much of the decade with our heads down building – often under pressure, often questioned and needing to prove that we were serious about doing this the right way. This year, when we finally stopped to look up, we saw that the movement behind us had grown to a number that made us hold our breath: 300 million.Today, about 1 in 27 people worldwide has trusted Binance to power and guide their crypto journey. Digital assets are no longer limited to geeks or a hidden corner of finance – it has become part of everyday life.Through the Mist: Resilience Tested Looking back, the journey this year was far from easy for anyone in the market.We went through the “Project Stargate” AI hype cycle, then the shock of “DeepSeek Monday.” Trade tensions escalated, and at one point a U.S. government shutdown even paused key data releases, leaving markets effectively flying blind. Volatility, black swans, and sentiment swings were constant.But it was precisely within this "mist," where directions were hard to see, that our industry demonstrated remarkable vitality.We saw the guiding lights of regulation turn on. The signing of the GENIUS Act on July 18 was perhaps the strongest in the series of signals the industry had been waiting for: regulation is no longer perceived as the Sword of Damocles hanging over heads, but a moat protecting innovators.With 70% of major global jurisdictions now rolling out clear frameworks, and new FASB accounting standards ensuring corporate crypto assets are no longer a black box, anyone who is watching knows that the "Wild West" era of crypto is over. A steadier, more predictable new epoch has begun.Connecting Two Worlds: No More Walls, Only BridgesFor much of crypto’s history, narratives in this space revolved around contrasts and opposites: centralized or decentralized? Retail or institutions?In 2025, the answer became clear: convergence.At Binance, we witnessed this convergence firsthand. This year, retail users remained our beating heart, with global retail-driven volume surging by 125%. Meanwhile, institutional adoption is also climbing: in a recent survey of global professional investors, 30% stated they have already invested in digital assets, with another 40% planning to do so within the year. Behavior matches these declarations: on Binance, institutional trading volume grew 21% year-on-year.This is part of a larger picture of institutional conversion and expansion into the digital-asset space. Whether it’s the stunning $30 billion+ net inflow into ETFs, or giants like BlackRock and Franklin Templeton moving nearly $10 billion in sovereign bonds on-chain, one thing is clear: Wall Street has learned the language of blockchain.Together, this demonstrates a shared enthusiasm between retail and institutions, and this vitality found its expression where liquidity is deepest: on Binance. On most days in 2025, nearly half of the global BTC and ETH trading volume took place on our platform. At the same time, over 60% of mainstream on-chain transactions are completed through Binance Wallet. When the wave hits, both retail and institutional users gravitate toward the safest, smoothest trading harbor – helping us reach $34 trillion in total product trading volume this year.To make moving between on-chain and off-chain worlds seamless, we brought the full Web3 experience directly into the exchange via Alpha 2.0. Over the past year, it handled over $1 trillion in volume, with 17 million users exploring new projects and claiming $782 million in airdrop rewards. Here, the boundary between centralized and decentralized disappears—you simply enjoy the fun of finding value.Trust: The Hard Way, The Right WayOf course, the trust of 300 million users is a huge responsibility. It means not only processing massive transaction volumes but also guarding our users' funds. Today, we can proudly say that Binance has become one of the world's primary custodians of digital wealth: our user asset balances, publicly verified via Proof of Reserves (POR), have reached $162.8 billion. Securing full authorization from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of ADGM, Abu Dhabi’s international financial center, is one of the strictest regulatory exams in the world, and this year, we passed it. We also secured 29 certifications globally (including ISO 27001, ISO 42001, PCI-DSS, SOC 1/2), introduced a Responsible AI Framework aligned with new global standards, and implemented a company-wide digital resilience strategy.Based on industry data, we reduced our direct exposure to major illicit flow categories by 96% between 2023 and 2025. Our AI models and risk controls intercepted $6.7 billion in potential fraud losses for 5.4 million users. Our Red Team, through countless attack simulations, forced the phishing failure rate down from 3.2% to a hard-fought 0.4%, vastly improving our organization’s resilience to deceptive social engineering tactics. We also helped over 50,000 users targeted by external scams recover $11.7 million of the money they thought they’d lost forever.In crypto, as in anywhere in finance, risk will always exist. But we can promise that behind your every trade, transfer, and login on Binance is an organization that treats your security as its core mission – and is willing to do the hard things, over and over, to keep earning your trust.2026: When the Wind RisesStanding at the tail end of 2025, we are more optimistic than ever.If 2025 was about navigating through the mist, then for 2026, we can sense the wind picking up.Look at the macro trends: Despite ongoing trade disputes, the global economy has seen robust growth this year; The tech revolution is on the eve of drastically boosting human productivity (AI, Quantum, Fusion); Governments are channeling more fiat to households and businesses (tax rebates, subsidies);The central bank’s liquidity gates are reopening (Federal Reserve restarting balance sheet expansion + continued rate cuts); And the upcoming "RFIA/CLARITY Act" is set to clarify the "rules for assets on-chain" (just as GENIUS clarified "money on-chain").These five powerful forces are pushing the market from "uncertain expansion" to "certain expansion." It means the underlying forces now point in one clear direction: more liquidity, and more real use. When macro tailwinds (growth, easing policy, fiscal support) combine with regulatory clarity and real institutional and sovereign adoption, the long-term trajectory of on-chain assets and applications becomes far more predictable.What excites us even more is that the next wave of crypto growth won't just rely on sentiment and hype. It will be dual-driven by sovereign-level capital and enterprise-grade applications.When nations start discussing Bitcoin as a strategic reserve, and when assets on-chain grow from billions to trillions, this can no longer be summarized simply as a "bull market." Rather, this is a fundamental reshaping of financial infrastructure.In ClosingNo matter how the world changes, Binance’s original mission remains unchanged: Freedom of Money.We will continue to be the "road builders." Whether you are a young man buying your first crypto with your savings, or an institutional trader managing billions; whether you are discovering the next big thing in Web3 via Alpha, or just buying a cup of coffee with Binance Pay, we will always be right there with you.In the coming year, we will continue to increase our investment in security, compliance, and education. From AI-driven security projects to next-generation financial literacy education through Binance Junior and to Binance Charity’s ongoing support for global financial inclusion – with over $43 million donated to benefit 4 million people so far, including more than 270,000 people helped in 2025 alone – we are committed to ensuring that no matter what stage you are at in your crypto journey, you can find a safe and trusted home at Binance.Thank you for every click, every trade, and every bit of trust in 2025. Let’s keep walking this path together. Let’s witness how a more open, fair financial world becomes reality, bit by bit, in our hands.One last thing: If you think that Binance could do even better, you are exactly the kind of person we’re missing. Come join us, let’s BUIDL together!Happy New Year!Yi He & Richard TengBinance Co-CEOsDecember 31, 2025