Binance flips Coinbase to become the exchange with the most BTC held globally

In the midst of the cryptocurrency market uncertainty, crypto traders and investors are also careful about which exchange they are using to trade their digital assets, which has led to some interesting observations in terms of recent holdings of two of the largest crypto trading platforms – Binance and Coinbase.

Specifically, Blockware Solution’s lead insights analyst Will Clemente posted on July 18 a Glassnode chart that compares and contrasts the change in Bitcoin (BTC) balances on Binance and Coinbase exchanges over time.

As it happens, Clemente has noticed that Binance and Coinbase have traded places in terms of which one of them held the most Bitcoin of any exchange. 

Indeed, up until recent days, Coinbase, the older exchange of the two (founded in 2012), was in a convincing lead, but the situation has flipped in favor of Binance, which joined the crypto market in 2017.

Why the sudden change?

There are many potential reasons why the situation with Binance holding more Bitcoin has changed and why people are finding the exchange a more favorable place for selling and exchanging their crypto for fiat or other assets.

One of them is the increased public trust due to Binance’s public relations (PR) efforts, as well as high-profile partnerships, including the multi-year NFT deal with football star Cristiano Ronaldo and the awareness-raising collaboration with famous Italian-Senegalese TikTok creator Khaby Lame in June.

At the same time, Binance’s American affiliate, Binance.US, launched zero-fee trading in late June for 13 Bitcoin spot trading pairs in an effort to “generate positive user sentiment that will bring us new users,” with plans to eliminate charges for more tokens in the future on top of its traditionally low fees, according to Binance.US CEO Brian Shroder.

Moreover, Binance also secured full regulatory approval in Dubai in March, in Bahrain, France, and Italy in May, as well as in Spain in July 2022.

In contrast, Coinbase has faced some troubles recently which may have contributed to the platform’s Bitcoin exchange balance, including the allegations of providing the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency with data about its users, including their “historical geo-tracking data,” as well as transaction history.

On top of that, Coinbase’s new mobile application downloads on Google Play and App Store plunged 55% between January and May 2022 – from about 2 million to 900,000, as Finbold reported in early June.

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