Panel SA: Binance Announces Increase in Customer Base Despite Crypto Winter

Binance releases a report this Thursday (19) that shows a 15% increase in the active institutional client base in Brazil in 2022.

According to the company, the Brazilian market is one of the ten largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, and the advance happened even during the so-called “crypto winter”, in which Bitcoin and Ethereum prices plummeted by more than 50%. The company does not disclose the size of its customer base.

The company’s global report points to a 65% growth among institutional clients, with expansion in high-income businesses.

Last year, the brokerage left the partnership it had with Capitual since 2020, following issues of regulation by the Central Bank. The exchange generated legal problems, with lawsuits from customers who had problems withdrawing money invested in cryptocurrencies.

Among the mishaps of 2022, at the end of last year, the digital currency exchange said that deposits were already returning to the company, after a wave of strong crypto outflows in which Binance recorded withdrawals of US$ 1.9 billion ( BRL 10.1 billion) in 24 hours, according to blockchain data company Nansen.

The turmoil traversed by bitcoins has shaken competitors like FTX, which declared bankruptcy in November and is blamed for one of the biggest financial market fraud schemes in the world.

Binance even made a purchase offer for FTX, but withdrew the proposal shortly after the disclosure of fraud cases commanded by the company’s owner, Sam Bankman-Fried. Until then, FTX was the third largest cryptocurrency platform in the world.

Joana Cunha with Paulo Ricardo Martins and Diego Felix