Binance co-founder Yi He has laid out a 3 billion user target for the exchange — a tenfold increase from its current 300 million — alongside a 34 million-user remittance footprint and an $87 billion cumulative volume through Binance Pay. In a post on Binance Square on May 27, Yi He framed the goal as reaching the roughly 3 billion adults globally who remain outside the formal financial system, a market she said crypto cannot serve without becoming the rails themselves.
Why it matters
The growth target lands at a moment when the industry's centre of gravity is shifting from speculative trading to payments, savings, and on-chain identity. Yi He has been the public face of that pivot for Binance, and the 3 billion figure is as much a positioning statement as an operational one. The numbers behind it are real: more than 34 million users have used Binance Pay to send money cross-border, with cumulative volume above $87 billion — a baseline that, against the World Bank's 6.36% global average remittance cost, implies users retained more than $50 billion that would otherwise have gone to intermediaries.
Market impact
The framing matters for Binance's competitive stance. By recasting itself as financial infrastructure for the unbanked — and tying AI tool access to that mission — the company is signalling that the next phase of growth will be measured in accounts and geographies served, not in trading volume. BNB, the native token of the chain that anchors Binance's payments and tooling, is the direct line into that thesis. The BNB contract on the post traded 2.87% lower on the day, a reminder that even milestone narratives do not always clear the bar when the broader market is moving.
Yi He also pushed back on the language of "empowerment" — a phrase she said implies someone else is holding the key — and called instead for removing the door entirely. It is a notably direct articulation of the inclusion argument at a moment when the industry is increasingly judged on whether its tools actually reach the people they claim to serve.
Frequently asked questions
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What is Binance's new user target?
Co-founder Yi He announced a 3 billion user target on May 27, a tenfold increase from the exchange's current 300 million users, framed as serving adults globally who remain outside the formal financial system.
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How big is Binance's remittance footprint?
More than 34 million users have sent money through Binance Pay, with cumulative volume above $87 billion. Against the World Bank's 6.36% global average remittance cost, that implies users retained more than $50 billion that would otherwise have gone to intermediaries.
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What did Yi He say about financial inclusion?
Yi He pushed back on the language of "empowering women," arguing it implies someone else holds the key. She said the goal is to remove the door entirely and let users decide for themselves what they want to do with the tools.
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How does Binance fit AI into the 3 billion user plan?
Yi He argued AI productivity should belong to users, not just the firms that build the models, and tied that directly to financial inclusion. The exchange has been rolling out tools that let non-coders use AI for crypto decisions and natural-language queries.
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How did BNB react to the announcement?
BNB traded 2.87% lower on the day the post was published, a reminder that milestone narratives do not always clear the bar when the broader market is moving.
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