Binance was founded in July 2017 by the Chinese-Canadian entrepreneur Changpeng Zhao (known as CZ) together with Yi He, after raising $15 million through an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) of its $BNB token.

​The project emerged and grew rapidly thanks to the following key factors:

​ICO funding: In July 2017, the platform launched its own token (Binance Coin or $BNB) via an ICO. The fundraising enabled the platform to be built and scaled quickly.

​Technical advantage: Zhao used his prior experience developing high-frequency trading software. Binance was designed to process up to 1.4 million orders per second, far exceeding the capacity of the competition at the time.

​Purely crypto-focused: Unlike other exchanges of the era that relied on integration with banks to operate with fiat money (such as dollars or euros), Binance began operating exclusively crypto-to-crypto. This allowed it to avoid early regulatory hurdles and expand globally at great speed.

​Low fees: The platform offered significantly lower transaction fees than its competitors and provided an additional discount to users who paid their fees using the BNB token.

​Accelerated growth: In just six months after its launch, Binance became the largest cryptocurrency exchange platform in the world by trading volume.