Highlights From Richard Teng’s December 1 AMA on X Spaces
Main Takeaways
On December 1, 2023, Richard Teng, Binance’s new CEO, spent almost an hour on X Spaces, answering a slew of user questions.
Some of the most intriguing questions covered Richard’s thoughts on becoming Binance’s new CEO, crypto’s utility, and CZ’s legacy.
Today’s landscape has changed vastly in the six years since Binance was founded, with different stakeholders, challenges, and solutions.
Binance has emerged from the turbulence stronger than ever. Our commitment to enhancing the freedom of money has not wavered, and users remain at the core of our mission.
What follows is a summary of Richard Teng’s answers to some of the questions he received during an X Spaces AMA on December 1, 2023. Please note that this transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
On Becoming Binance’s CEO
How are you feeling as the new CEO of Binance? What are your immediate priorities?
Richard: First of all, let me thank all our users for the overwhelming support they've given. Users remain at the core of everything we do, so it is very heartening to see. We are a user-focused organization, and we will continue to focus on user needs.
For the last two years, there has been an overcast concerning the U.S. investigation. With its recent resolution, we have overcome that. Since we started in 2017, user protection has been sacrosanct. However, compliance controls were lacking.
Learning from our past actions, we now move stronger as an organization, and we have a strong foundation to build on. With this overcast gone, a lot of new partners are now approaching us. The industry remains resilient, and our user base continues to grow. Today, we have over 166 million users, and that figure continues to grow quite robustly. Thanks to that critical trust and support, we continue to build for the future.
Immediate priorities
I have three immediate priorities. Firstly, to continue being a user-focused organization, pushing ahead with services and use cases to develop the business and ecosystem. Secondly, the direction of travel is clear: we are going to see more regulations within crypto. Regulatory clarity is good for the entire industry, and I am committed to promoting it. We need everyone to play by the same standards, and that will help bring about mass adoption.
The third commitment is to work with our partners to continue to drive crypto adoption and deployment. Until the last two and a half years, very few institutions were spending time on this. Now, everyone has a blockchain, Web3, or crypto agenda. Everyone is rushing to push forward with new products and services to meet user demand in this sector. We look forward to working with them to foster adoption.
These are key positives for all of us, which is why I'm optimistic for the future. I'm working very closely and tirelessly with the rest of my team, and the sector will continue to evolve, but it's extremely important that we stay true to our roots. Our core mission is to enhance the freedom of money and allow every individual to realize their financial freedom. The passion and vibrancy of the community are key to that.
Crypto in action
I've traveled the world quite extensively in my job, and I see how crypto changes the lives of so many different people across the world. In many parts of the world, especially developing and frontier economies, financial inclusion is very low. This is usually because financial services are costly.
I see how crypto changes the lives of all these people across different communities, and it does so at a fraction of the cost. You can do remittance at a fraction of the cost of what traditional financial institutions charge. You can use payment services where there was previously no access. All these possibilities are changing the lives of people drastically.
Unlike traditional finance, which works from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. five days a week, crypto doesn't sleep. It works 24/7. It provides an open infrastructure to the world at a low cost, which is why it's so powerful. We will continue to push ahead to build new products, systems, and use cases to increase the freedom of money that improves billions of lives around the world.
We are tireless in that we'll continue to push ahead, make investments, and work closely with our partners and community to understand their needs. I believe it will cut across all different industries going forward. Crypto provides a lot of solutions to the problems we see today.
On Binance Fines
We’ve seen many community members asking about the fines that have been in the news recently. Can Binance afford the fines?
Richard: My assurance is: don't worry. We are in very strong financial shape. The fundamentals of our business are very strong. We were profitable almost from day one and have remained profitable since. We are still by far the largest crypto exchange globally in terms of volume. Our users trust us because of our consistency over the past six years. At every instance, we look out for users.
The U.S. agencies do not allege that there was ever any misappropriation of user funds. User funds are backed one-to-one, and users can choose to withdraw 100% of their funds at any point in time. Users can be assured that we take our custodial responsibility very seriously.
Users have been overwhelmingly positive about all this, and we have been honored to see an outpouring of support. We have more users signing up with us now than ever before – 166 million by now. Those fines are not an issue. We will continue to push ahead. Our expenses are modest, and we have robust profits and revenue.
We are now focusing on the future, which remains extremely bright. Please continue supporting us and join us on our journey. Fines of this magnitude are not uncommon in the financial sector. Many financial institutions have paid fines much bigger than this. What is important is for us to learn from our past actions, overcome them, and emerge from this episode stronger than before.
On New Listings
Given recent events, will there be heavier security around project listings on Binance?
Richard: Let me stress that the issues we had in the US regarding registration, compliance, sanctions, etc. were past, historical issues. In the past two years, we have invested heavily in our compliance program. We've recruited a leadership team from regulatory agencies, traditional finance, etc. that is familiar with the regulatory process. We'll continue improving our compliance initiatives to build a sustainable future as a user-led organization that meets all the global compliance standards.
Listing is something we take very seriously. Our listing standards are very high compared to many others because we are there for our users. There are a few primary things we consider: use cases, community engagement, whether the project is building for the future, etc. Those will not change. Our fundamental approach to listings is that we want to work with exciting projects that support the community through their use cases.
A lot of the time, the project owners are happy, and they move away, which is challenging for users, communities, and investors. If you don't continue to build on those projects, everybody is worse off, which is why we require deep commitment from project owners and sponsors in terms of project release. Our listing team does a lot of work with these projects to ensure they continue building exciting things, not only to protect user interests but also to enrich the entire ecosystem.
On CZ’s Legacy
Do you see yourself committing to and continuing CZ’s journey, or will you try a different approach to realize your vision for Binance?
Richard: I assumed this role because of CZ’s and our leadership’s confidence and trust in me to bring the franchise – a very important franchise – into its next chapter. Our mantra remains the same: to support the freedom of money. We will continue to be a user-focused organization because users are at the heart of what we do. Without your support, our platform means nothing.
That user trust, confidence, and support have translated into 166 million users, and we continue to grow by the day. I'm looking forward to pushing that figure further and supporting the next billion. Hopefully, we'll reach that figure sooner than we think. If you look at the pace of adoption in crypto, the next five years are going to be much faster than the previous five years. I'm committed to that mission, agenda, and vision, which our great company is built on. I have an excellent core team with me, so we have a very strong foundation.
Today, we’re operating from a different position than six years ago, when CZ first started the company. Back then, the landscape was totally different. We are dealing with different groups of stakeholders now. Six years ago, you did not have regulators, and large institutions were not embracing this space. Today, we have moved to a different situation. In many instances, regulators are starting to interact quite heavily, and institutions are investing in this space.
Today, the opportunities and challenges are very different than six years ago. In some areas, we must pivot and build to ensure we are sustainable while remaining user-focused. That is what I'm prioritizing to make sure the company remains strong and robust for the path ahead: focusing on users while making the right investments in other areas to remain a leading company within the ecosystem.
You can listen to a recording of the AMA in full here.
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