According to Catherine Chen, Head of VIP and Institutional at Binance, established crypto companies are set to collaborate with traditional finance, but the crypto sector will not be dominated by Wall Street firms.
By Olivier Acuna|Edited by Jamie Crawley May 30, 2026, 1:00 p.m. 3 min readMake preferred on Catherine Chen states that Binance is actively building during the current market downturn, with a goal of reaching 3 billion users by 2030. (Binance/Press)Key Highlights:
- Binance is focusing on growth amid a downturn in the crypto market, with aspirations to increase its verified active user count from approximately 310 million to 3 billion by 2030.
- The exchange aims to address the over $2 billion gap in spending between traditional finance and crypto infrastructure through a new Order Management System (OMS) toolkit and institutional collaborations.
- Binance is strengthening its connections with Wall Street by allowing institutions to use tokenized money market funds from companies such as BlackRock and Franklin Templeton, and by providing Crypto-as-a-Service to banks and asset managers.
While the crypto market faces challenges, with competitors struggling or shifting their focus, Binance is committed to growth, aiming to expand its active user base tenfold by 2030, as stated by Catherine Chen in a recent interview with CoinDesk.
“The market is indeed facing difficulties,” Chen remarked. “We are observing regulatory changes, and some of our competitors are either having a tough time or refocusing their efforts.”
For instance, Coinbase has recently laid off 14% of its workforce, nearly 700 employees, due to unfavorable market conditions and challenges related to AI, part of a larger trend of layoffs within the crypto industry this year.
As Bitcoin encounters obstacles in its quest to surpass the critical $100,000 mark—a level not seen since mid-November—investors are seeking sustainable growth opportunities beyond mere retail speculation. The total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies is around $2.7 trillion, representing a nearly 40% decline from its peak of $4.38 trillion prior to the October Flash Crash, from which Bitcoin has yet to recover.
Chen emphasized that Binance's position remains strong despite the downturn, highlighting that the exchange currently caters to over 310 million verified active users. She clarified that these are “actual active individual users,” verified through rigorous KYC and corporate KYB processes, not merely “registered” accounts. Binance is recognized as the largest crypto exchange globally, leading in both trading volume and registered users, with Coingecko ranking Binance second in terms of daily trading volume, which averages about $7 billion.
Addressing the $2 Billion Institutional Spending Gap
Chen discusses a rapidly growing digital asset market that requires collaboration between traditional finance (TradFi) and native cryptocurrency to ensure mutual success in the future.
Binance is targeting the significant spending gap between traditional and digital asset sectors, as Chen pointed out. She noted that TradFi invests over $2 billion annually in sophisticated Order Management Systems (OMS), whereas crypto infrastructure spending is less than 10% of that, approximately $185 million.
The new OMS toolkit from Binance aims to bridge this gap, collaborating with established industry players like Coin Metrics, Talos, and 3Commas to deliver institutional-grade flow analytics, Chen explained.
“Financial institutions are increasingly collaborating with crypto exchanges and blockchain infrastructure providers,” Chen stated. “They do not wish to develop all that infrastructure independently.”
Utilizing Wall Street Assets on Crypto Platforms
This collaboration has progressed beyond theoretical trading into the essential infrastructure of institutional custody. As retail trends are observed, Chen noted that Binance has introduced an institutional “triparty” banking framework designed to mitigate the main concern for TradFi: counterparty risk.
Institutional clients prefer not to hold crypto directly or leave their capital on exchanges, Chen added. They want to custody fiat or fiat-equivalents with their existing banking partners.
To address this, Binance has quietly integrated with sovereign-grade asset management, Chen stated, mentioning that the exchange now accepts tokenized money market funds from major institutions like BlackRock and Franklin Templeton as part of its triparty ecosystem.
Institutional traders can now pledge real-time, yield-bearing tokenized shares to support their trading activities, avoiding the cumbersome process of manually rolling Treasury futures and incurring high administrative costs.
“Whether it involves equities, treasury, or debt, this is the future,” Chen remarked, highlighting an anticipated 12-to-18-month period in which real-world asset (RWA) tokenization will advance swiftly. "People are beginning to understand that tokenizing an asset does not automatically alter its fundamental characteristics or price. It is fundamentally a better way to enhance accessibility."
Additionally, Binance launched its Crypto-as-a-Service (CaaS) platform specifically for financial institutions interested in entering the digital asset market in September of last year, Chen noted. Since then, more than 15 major financial institutions have sought Binance's services.
“Whenever the market is down, it’s the optimal time for us to build,” Chen asserted. “We are focused on growth and positioning ourselves to expand our user base tenfold while others are not paying attention—and then, ideally, we will already be there.”
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