Key Takeaways
- Binance.US CEO Stephen Gregory targets a return to 20% of the U.S. market after a 2-year regulatory freeze.
- The exchange cut fees to 0% for makers and 2 basis points for takers, close to a no-fee model.
- Gregory plans derivatives, perpetual futures and prediction markets if new U.S. licenses come through.
From Hibernation to Growth Mode
Gregory laid out the plan for the firm’s comeback bid in a recent interview. Binance.US once held roughly 20% of American crypto trading before a two-year slump tied to the regulatory troubles of the broader Binance brand hollowed out its business. The exchange is now focused squarely on winning that share back.
Price is the first weapon. “We’re essentially almost a no-fee exchange,” Gregory said, pointing to 0% maker fees and taker fees of just 2 basis points, a fraction of what larger rivals such as Coinbase and Kraken charge on comparable trades. The company plans to keep costs low with a lean team while generating revenue from services such as custody alongside trading.
The rebuild will be hands-on, per Gregory, who is a compliance veteran and was appointed to the top job in March. He described restoring liquidity through incentives and direct outreach, including personally contacting the exchange’s top users for feedback.
A Separate Company, a Shared Name
Since his hiring, Gregory has continued to emphasize that Binance.US is licensed exclusively to serve U.S. customers and operates as a separate U.S.-only entity with its own governance structure, though it shares a beneficial owner and brand name with Binance.com.
That difference is important to note since the exchange courts American traders who fled during the turmoil, when the global brand’s legal battles made the U.S. affiliate radioactive by association.
The parent brand, for its part, marked its ninth anniversary earlier today, with co-founder Changpeng Zhao thanking users and looking ahead to “the next 90 years.” Binance’s global arm has separately been talking up tokenization as the industry’s next defining stretch, underscoring how differently the two businesses are positioned: one chasing new frontiers, the other rebuilding at home.
The timing of the comeback push comes as no surprise as Gregory believes that an increasingly favorable U.S. regulatory environment could allow Binance.US to expand well beyond spot trading, and the company expects to pursue additional licenses enabling derivatives, perpetual futures, and prediction markets (product lines that have powered rivals’ growth).
Congress is simultaneously weighing the CLARITY Act, market structure legislation that would clarify which regulators oversee digital asset trading.
That said, whether Binance.US can convert near-zero fees into durable market share remains the open question. Coinbase retains a commanding lead in U.S. spot trading while Kraken, too, has been expanding aggressively. In all of this, the no-fee economics are only sustainable if custody and other services pick up the slack.
