Binance Now Has More Users Than the Population of Hong Kong

Hong-Kong based cryptocurrency exchange Binance is growing at an immense pace. According to a monthly report released today by the exchange on its Medium page, Binance now has 7.9 million “total and registered” users.

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This figure is mind-blowing on its own, especially when we realize that BInance’s competitors at the crowded top 5 spot of the Coinmarketcap pyramid hold a relatively similar number of users. However, it’s even more astonishing when compared to the population of Hong-Kong. According to a census conducted in February by the Chinese government bureau of statistics, the special autonomous region has 7.4 million residents.

Source: Binance

250,000 new users in one hour

Another interesting factor is the period of time during which Binance, which was founded on September 2017, managed to reach this number of users. According to the report, the vast majority of their clientele – almost 7 million people – were on-boarded in only 97 days. This rapid pace appears more reasonable when we put it into perspective of the exchanges peak periods. According to an interview given by Binance CEO Zhao Chanpeng back in January, the exchange attracted a quarter of a million new users in one hour, upon reopening registration.

Binance chain

This week Binance revealed some interesting news when announcing the establishment of it’s own blockchain and the upgrade of the version of its cryptocurrency. The new platform, called ‘Binance Chain’ will be used for transfer and trading of blockchain ‎assets. Binance promised it will eliminate administration tasks using smart contract rules and will speed up the transaction settlement. ‎

The exchanges’ own token Binance Coin ‎‎(BNB) will be upgraded and will now exist on its public blockchain.

Infamous security track-record

However, Binance has experienced several setbacks during its time in operation. The exchange experienced numerous hacks and DDOS attack, causing it to go offline. Last week, it fell under a sophisticated attack, causing mayhem in the crypto space and contributing to the bearish sentiment in the market. The anonymous hackers, who gathered information on 31 of Binance users by phishing and creating a special API key, pumped and dumped the VIA coin, causing its value to spike from a little over $2 to more than a $10 mark.

Soon after the hack, Zhao published a statement asking public’s for help in catching the hackers, and offered $250,000 in return for information leading to an arrest.