The Effect of The Fed Lowering Interest Rates, Bitcoin Has the Opportunity to Strengthen

Previously, crypto exchange Binance saw a 40% increase in the number of institutional and corporate investors joining its platform this year, Binance CEO Richard Teng said in an interview with CNBC’s Lin Lin.

Teng, who has been CEO since November 2023, said that the allocation of investment to crypto by institutions is still in its early stages, with many of them still conducting thorough assessments and reviews.

“Investment allocation to crypto by institutions is only on the surface. This is just the beginning because many of them are still doing due diligence,” Teng said on the sidelines of the Token2049 conference in Singapore, quoted from CNBC, Friday (20/9/2024).

“We ourselves have seen a huge increase in the number of institutional and corporate investors. We have seen a 40% increase in onboarding in that category so far this year,” he added.

However, Teng did not name specific companies or the size of the companies involved.

This growth reflects how big capital is starting to be interested in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, even though Binance was hit by an investigation in the United States (US) and agreed to a settlement of USD 4.3 billion or around IDR 66 trillion.

Changpeng Zhao, the billionaire co-founder and former CEO of Binance, stepped down last year as part of the settlement, though he remains a major shareholder in the company, according to Teng.

Teng also revealed that Binance has shifted from being a founder-led company to one led by a seven-person board of directors, a structure he said is more familiar to regulators.

Teng himself joined Binance in 2021 as CEO of the company’s Singapore operations, having previously served as CEO of the Financial Services Regulatory Authority at Abu Dhabi Global Market and chief regulatory officer at the Singapore Exchange.