- Binance wants to be a payment provider, broker, and bank on one single platform.
- Binance Pay has reached over 21 million merchants and connects with local rails.
- Binance bStocks hit $100M in 15 days with 47% of volume traded outside US hours.
The world’s largest crypto exchange has a new identity it is building toward, and it has very little to do with crypto trading.
Binance is slowly becoming something closer to a financial operating system. Stablecoins move money across borders. Tokenized stocks trade at 3 am. Users in Brazil pay merchants through Pix. Emerging market investors access US equities for the first time through USDC balances. All of it on one platform, all without a bank account required.
Shunyet Jan, the executive running Binance’s spot and derivatives business, said the company’s scale looks completely different depending on how you frame it. Frame it as a trading platform, and you get one number. Frame it as a payment provider, and that number becomes dramatically larger.
“If you think of us as a payment provider, then that number becomes much bigger,” he said.
Numbers Are Already Surprising
When Binance opened access to more than 7,000 US stocks and ETFs for users outside the United States in June, the expectation was gradual adoption. What happened instead was $1 billion in direct stock positions within 30 days and $3 billion in cumulative trading volume. More than 73% of that activity came from emerging markets.
Its tokenised stock product, bStocks, crossed $100 million in assets in just 15 days. Nearly half of trading happened outside normal US market hours, which is the entire point: when you remove the constraints of traditional market infrastructure, people trade when they want to.
Binance Pay has reached 21 million merchants. It connects with local payment rails, including Brazil’s Pix. None of that is a trading product.
Why Stablecoins Change Everything
Jan’s argument is structural rather than promotional. Most Binance users do not spend their time speculating on derivatives. Increasingly, they hold stablecoins to send money home, pay for goods, or park savings in a dollar-denominated asset because their local currency is unreliable.
Binance Research estimates crypto exchanges could bring 300 million new investors and $2 trillion into global equity markets by 2031. The mechanism is stablecoin settlement, which removes the friction that currently makes cross-border investing expensive or simply unavailable for most of the world.
Competition Is Already Watching
Coinbase has described a nearly identical vision, a super app where crypto, payments, and financial services sit on one platform. The race to become the financial home screen for the next generation of global users is already underway.
Binance’s advantage is that it is not building toward this future. In several emerging markets, it is already there.
Related: Binance to Delist Four Spot Trading Pairs on July 17, 2026
Disclaimer: The information presented in this article is for informational and educational purposes only. The article does not constitute financial advice or advice of any kind. Coin Edition is not responsible for any losses incurred as a result of the utilization of content, products, or services mentioned. Readers are advised to exercise caution before taking any action related to the company.
