Binance is a Cayman Islands-domiciled crytocurrency exchange that provides a platform for trading various cryptocurriencies founded in 2017. As of April 2021, Binance was the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world in terms of trading volume.
Binance was founded by Changpeng Zhao, commonly known as "CZ", a developer who had previously created high frequency trading software. Binance was initially based in China, but later moved its headquarters out of China due to China’s increasing regulation of cryptocurrency.
Throughout its history, the company has launched two cryptocurrencies which it developed itself: Binance Coin (BNB),launched June 2017,and Binance Smart Chain (BSC),launched September 2020.As of 2021, Binance Coin was the cryptocurrency with the third highest market capitalization.Binance allows its users to pay fees on its exchange with Binance Coin.
In April 2021 the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority in Germany warned that the company risked fines for offering its securities-tracking digital tokens without publishing an investor prospectus.