Binance Co-founder He Yi: Aiming for 3 Billion Users to Build Global Financial Infrastructure
He Yi, co-founder of Binance, stated at the Hong Kong Web3 Carnival that the company's goal has expanded from the previously proposed 1 billion users to 3 billion users. Binance aims to upgrade from a cryptocurrency trading platform to a global financial infrastructure that covers everyday financial services such as payments and wealth management.
He also mentioned that the industry is approaching a critical turning point, where foreign exchange trading may migrate to blockchain systems, weakening the traditional SWIFT system's central position. Asset trading will also shift from time-restricted market structures to 24/7 operations, similar to the current 24-hour trading mechanism in the cryptocurrency market.
This assessment aligns with several English information sources: Visa and Mastercard have been advancing stablecoin settlement pilots, and SWIFT is testing blockchain interoperability solutions; meanwhile, institutions like Coinbase and BlackRock are promoting tokenized assets and on-chain settlements, attempting to reconstruct the traditional financial clearing system.
Source: Public Information
ABAB AI Insight
This is not just a simple adjustment of user growth targets, but a fundamental shift in platform positioning. Aiming for 3 billion users means covering nearly half of the global internet population, a scale that only infrastructure-level networks can support, such as operating systems, payment networks, or social platforms. Binance is attempting to transition from a "trading venue" to a "value transfer network," essentially competing for the position of the "settlement layer" and "accounting system" within the financial system.
Their assessment of foreign exchange and SWIFT points to a potential restructuring of global clearing rights. SWIFT does not directly handle funds but serves as an information network, tied to the dollar system and interbank clearing structure. If foreign exchange trading migrates on-chain, it means the integration of clearing, custody, and bookkeeping, compressing the intermediary role of traditional banks and redefining the relationship between currency sovereignty and payment networks.
24-hour trading is not a technical issue but a regulatory one. The existence of trading hours in traditional financial markets is to match the rhythms of clearing, risk control, and regulation; the cryptocurrency market bypasses this system to achieve continuous trading but also bears higher volatility and risk. If this model extends to stocks, bonds, and foreign exchange, it means that global capital markets will transition from "segmented markets" to "continuous markets," fundamentally restructuring price discovery mechanisms and liquidity structures.
A deeper change is that financial services are shifting from "institutional layered supply" to "platform integrated supply." Banks, brokerages, and payment companies previously occupied separate links in the chain, while Web3 platforms attempt to integrate accounts, trading, clearing, and asset issuance within the same system. Once this integration is established, it will change the distribution of financial profits, making technology platforms rather than traditional financial institutions the main value capture entities.