Binance’s market share reaches 49%: Was this event a catalyst?

• Binance’s market share increased to 49% in January.
• Stablecoins inflows to Binance rose significantly this month.

The world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance [BNB], drastically improved its market share since the legal resolution with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in November 2023.

According to leading crypto market researcher Kaiko, Binance’s market share relative to 23 other centralized exchanges increased to 49% in January, up from multi-year lows seen during the latter period of 2023.

Source: Kaiko

The crypto behemoth settled its disputes with the U.S. government by agreeing to pay a $4 billion penalty and undertaking measures that improve its compliance with the local laws.

The event also resulted in the exit of former CEO and one of the most popular faces in the industry – Changpeng Zhao (CZ).

As one can see, there was no major impact on Binance’s share of trading volume immediately after the settlement happened.

However, key developments in December and January shifted the tide in Binance’s favor.

Binance reintroduced the highly popular zero-fee promotions in December for top assets like Bitcoin [BTC], Ethereum [ETH], and XRP.

The move was seemingly done to jack up demand for stablecoin, First Digital USD [FDUSD].

For the curious, Binance’s zero-fee trading program was a major factor in boosting volumes and expanding its market in 2022.

The fact that the there was a severe drop in volumes when the campaign ended last year, reflected its strategic importance.

Additionally, the hype surrounding Bitcoin spot ETFs boosted trading volumes across the industry in early January.

According to AMBCrypto’s analysis of CryptoQuant data, stablecoins inflows to Binance rose significantly in the days leading to the approvals, indicating greater buying/trading activity.

Source: CryptoQuant

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The events discussed above therefore played a big part in pushing Binance’s market share to 50%. In the report, Kaiko said,

“The exchange has proven to be mostly resilient in the aftermath of the settlement.”

That being said, there was still much distance to be covered. Binance’s market share still remains considerably lower than its 2023 highs of 65%.