Binance has announced it now has 280 million users, marking a period of rapid growth driven by new products and the approval of spot crypto ETFs.
On July 10, Binance announced that it has surpassed 280 million registered users, a significant milestone that underscores the platform’s continued market leadership. This growth serves as a key indicator of the exchange’s health and its capacity for future Binance listings, with its next major target set at one billion users.
The company shared the news on X, with CEO Richard Teng attributing the growth to a “user-first” philosophy. The platform’s expansion has been notable for its native coin, BNB BNB $685.7 24h volatility: 2.4% Market cap: $100.06 B Vol. 24h: $1.35 B , and its vibrant trading ecosystem.
280M onboarded. ✔️
Next stop: 1 billion users! 🌕 pic.twitter.com/h5aI5gw3Ke
— Binance (@binance) July 10, 2025
The announcement highlights a period of accelerated expansion. Based on company data, Binance added an impressive 130 million users in the 18 months since the end of 2023. This growth was fueled in large part by the market-wide legitimacy brought on by the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs in the US.
Binance’s user growth over time | Source: Coinspeaker
A key part of Binance’s strategy involves launching products for specific regions. One recent example is its Sharia Earn service, the first multi-token staking product certified as compliant with Islamic finance principles, which has opened a significant new user acquisition channel.
While Binance leads the market in total users, other best crypto exchanges are focused on specific niches. Coinbase, with 108 million users, has established itself as a regulated gateway for US institutions, while OKX recently partnered with Circle to improve its utility for USDC payments.
The number of users across the most popular crypto exchanges | Source: Coinspeaker
Echoes of Past Tech Revolutions
Binance’s path to one billion users mirrors the S-curve adoption seen in other transformative technologies. The internet, for instance, took approximately five years to grow from roughly 360 million users in 2000 to the one billion mark. Social media giant Facebook, powered by immense network effects, made the same leap from 300 million to one billion users in just three years.
How long it took Facebook and the Internet to get to one billion users, and how long it might take crypto | Source: Coinspeaker
Cryptocurrency’s journey is a unique hybrid of these revolutions. It involves overcoming a foundational protocol challenge similar to the early internet, where a simple application layer—in this case, the exchange—is needed to make the complex technology accessible to the masses. It also harnesses powerful network effects, where more users and more Binance listings create more liquidity, attracting even more participants in a virtuous cycle.
However, crypto faces a challenge that these predecessors did not: it is a direct challenge to traditional finance. This invites a higher degree of regulatory scrutiny and demands a level of security and trust greater than that required for browsing a website or creating a social media profile. This unique financial dimension suggests that while the growth can be rapid, the path will likely be more volatile.
The exchange’s journey will depend on overcoming these challenges and simplifying the user experience to attract the next wave of mainstream participants.
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