Binance’s institutional business, which includes financial institutions, family offices, and high net worth individuals, saw a 34% growth in the MENA region in Q4, 2022, the highest growth for a region for the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.

Binance’s VIP and institutional business experienced tremendous growth throughout 2022. The number of active institutional clients on Binance rose 65% and futures trading volumes by institutions increased by 62%, according to the exchange’s End of Year Report 2022.

While 2022 was a turbulent year for crypto investors, one of the signs of the industry’s fundamental health and robustness was the continued growth in the number of institutions entering the space despite these apparent headwinds, the report noted.

“2022 was unquestionably a challenging year for everyone in the blockchain and crypto space, including us. In the face of major headwinds, we remained steadfast in prioritizing user experience, products with real-world value, and — most importantly a healthy, sustainable path forward for the entire industry,” the report maintained.

Binance also made significant progress on the regulatory and compliance side and ‘continued to deliver the best user experience in Web3’, the report added.

In 2022, the exchange processed a whopping $65 billion in trading volume on average every day, at a speed of approximately 0.7 million transactions per second.

“After a series of shocking bankruptcies within the crypto space, which didn’t help improve the public’s sentiment amid the harsh macroeconomic environment, we worked to build and restore trust in not only Binance, but also the larger ecosystem,” the annual report noted.

“Leading the charge for transparency, we launched a proof-of-reserves (PoR) system that anyone can use to verify that user funds are held 1:1 on Binance, in addition to a proof of collateral for all Binance Bridge-pegged tokens. And to safeguard our 128 million users in the event of an emergency, we increased the value of our Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) back to $1 billion,” the report noted.

Last year also saw a number of strides forward in terms of improving the ID verification processes and user experience.

Users in Latin America and MENA can now experience faster identity verification thanks to Binance’s partnerships with regional vendors, the report maintained.

Looking ahead, the report added that Binance stands on a solid foundation and is financially healthy. “We innovate, listen to our users, and lead by example.”

(Writing by Sunil S, editing by Seban Scaria)

(seban.scaria@lseg.com)