The largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world by trading volume, Binance, continues to see explosive growth in spite of price reductions across the market earlier this week. The company added 240,000 users in just one hour on Wednesday Jan. 10, surpassing all previous growth records.
Binance’s record growth this week is taking place in spite of drops across the markets, and negative comments from traditional investment moguls like Warren Buffet.
In response to Buffet’s pessimistic comments on the crypto market, Binance CEO Zhao Changpeng told Bloomberg in an interview Jan. 11:
“Warren Buffett is a guy I truly respect from an investment point of view. But I do not think he understands cryptocurrencies at all. It is what it is. I still respect him in other parts of his expertise. But I think on cryptocurrencies he’s making a big mistake.”
Zhao himself is even surprised by Binance’s growth, saying in the interview that the company had not expected the explosive numbers Wednesday. The company has hosted almost $5 bln in cryptocurrency trades in the past 24 hours to press time.
The exchange temporarily closed new registrations last week while undergoing an update to allow for higher volumes, and has since re-opened them to limited numbers.
Other industry insiders see the Binance success as a general sign of growth in the market, and increasing adoption. Gregory Van den Bergh, co-founder and CEO of MiCai, a Blockchain based wealth management firm, told Cointelegraph:
“We are just at the early stage of the crypto adoption curve. Binance and other crypto exchanges are still serving the crypto early adopters. The next phase of adoption will come from the 30 tln dollars that is currently actively managed on behalf of high net worth individuals across the globe.”
Bitcoin continues trading lower on the day, however. At press time, the average price among exchanges was $14,123, up almost four percent on the day.