Binance quarterly profit soars to $150m

The majority of crypto exchanges tend to keep their profit figures out of the public eye, but Zhao said Binance’s numbers are easy to figure out because it committed in its whitepaper to burn 20% of its profits every quarter.

On 14th April, the company burned the equivalent of $30 million (£22.7 million) of coins, equating to an overall profit of $150 million. The company’s average daily trading volume is $1 billion (£76 million).

Zhao told attendees at the TechCrunch Sessions: Blockchain that blockchain has been the biggest contributor to the exchange’s growth. “We have users in 180 countries around the world. We don’t take fiat, which makes our users more spread globally so everyone can deposit and withdraw on the blockchain. When you can grow in 180 countries simultaneously, you grow faster.”

Zhao said projects who want to list on Binance can choose how much they pay, but the typical rate is around $200,000 (£151,350). The exchange has a dedicated project analysis team, which looks at whether the founding team has previous history and a product that already exists.

“If they have a product already then it is safer for us to list, whereas if they just have a concept, which a lot of white papers are, it is much higher risk,” Zhao commented. “We look at the size of the user base, but we don’t have hard numbers because the minute we publish a metric, people will engineer it.”

The venture is mainly interested in investing in projects that can help the blockchain ecosystem to grow, for example faster blockchains and safer and easier-to-use wallets. “We like teams who are very technical, but potentially weak on marketing or fundraising. If Binance participates they will never have to worry about money,” Zhao claimed.