The world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance , has experienced a net inflow surge lately. Between February 21 and February 27, 2025, however, Binance made out much better than any other exchange. It attracted an astonishing total of $3.971 billion in net inflows during that brief period. For context, nine other major exchanges drew in together only $396.83 million for the same period (they raised half a billion altogether, but Binance snared a steep chunk of that almost all to itself). So, we can see pretty clearly that Binance is going up amidst a broadly declining situation where investors are moving away from centralized exchanges. Binance Dominates in February 2025, Outpacing Competitors The data from February 2025 really emphasizes the fact that Binance is clearly the leader in this market. During that month, Binance’s net inflow was of $5.323 billion. The other nine exchanges combined had a net inflow of $1.229 billion, which made their monthly net inflow 4.33 times smaller than Binance’s. This was a gap that could hardly be seen on the second place exchange, Bitfinex, which had a net inflow of $768.19 million. Capital pouring into Binance coincides with the latest market trend. Data from DefiLlama shows that for the last many months in a row, Binance has been racking up net inflows of well over $3 billion a month. In the month of November alone, Binance hit its peak with a net inflow of I can’t say the exact amount in my own words, but it was definitely well north of $9 billion. The latest inflows were sort of a back-to-back after Binance also saw the inflows after the Bybit hack at the last part of October, which seems the inflows in general and also seems like a sign of GUD trust and a sign of confidence because even in times of market turbulence, we still see traders and investors placing their funds into Binance. The picture that the data paints is one of Binance’s overwhelming market share, particularly in contrast to its competitors. Exchanges that are seen to be in direct competition with Binance on a regular basis seem to have experienced nowhere near the level of inflows that Binance has. In fact, it seems that Binance’s competitors have experienced—if anything—a bit of outflow. CZ Reflects on Missed Ethereum Opportunity In a recent community question-and-answer session, Binance’s chief executive, Changpeng Zhao, took queries from the public that spanned a broad spectrum, including some of a personal nature, like how much Ethereum Zhao himself holds. Zhao said he doesn’t hold much Ether, and hasn’t in some time, maybe because he lost access to older wallets that hold some. “I have a very small amount, and it is really in my very old wallets,” Zhao said. His response seemed to hint at two issues: Zhao’s poor memory when it comes to wallets, and the poor user interface for Ethereum wallets (in which it is easier to lose track of a wallet than with other digital assets). CZ went on to frankly confess that he overlooked an early chance to put money into Ethereum. He remembered his first meeting with Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin at a Bitcoin conference in 2013. He recollected the years that came after, learning about Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) in 2014 and how, in 2015, Vitalik had briefly crashed at his Tokyo apartment. Yet, despite this close-to-home tie to the up-and-coming project, CZ confessed to being skeptical about the blockchain’s having a Turing-complete language—a concept that Vitalik had confidently asserted was doable. Defillama reveals that Binance recorded $3.971 billion in net inflows from Feb. 21-27, 2025 following the Bybit hacking incident. In February, Binance recorded net inflows of $5.323 billion. Binance recorded over $3 billion in net inflows in six of the past 12 months, with… — Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) March 5, 2025 Looking back, CZ recognized that this mistake was a big one. He joked that had he plowed some money into Ethereum, it might have stopped him from doing a complete 180 and launching Binance and BNB. But, in all seriousness, CZ sees this and other close-call moments as teaching tools—lessons that help him make better decisions in the future. And that Ethereum thing, as it turns out, was an industry-level close call. Vitalik’s Innovations and the Crypto Landscape CZ also reflected on Ethereum and recognized the many contributions made by Vitalik Buterin to the blockchain space. He lauded Vitalik for his innovative thinking and for what he called groundbreaking innovations. For CZ, these innovations are enormously important. They are not only big ideas but also play a huge role in the advancement of the crypto industry. They include the introduction of smart contracts, ERC20 tokens, NFTs, soulbound tokens (SBTs), and Layer 2 solutions. Even though investing in Ethereum was a golden opportunity that the Binance chief missed, he still remains appreciative of what Vitalik Buterin has done and is doing for digital currency. It is shaping the future of “decentralized everything,” in CZ’s words. The Binance chief is an admirer of Buterin and is a lifelong learner in the blockchain industry. He emphasizes the need to keep evolving and adapting to new developments in this sector. Binance’s Continued Growth and Future Prospects Although he may think sometimes about those opportunities that he could have taken, Binance is in an upward path. We see that clearly now in net inflows and in the trust that users have in the platform when times get tough in the crypto market. The success that Binance itself has achieved, along with the platform’s ongoing development of the BNB ecosystem, speaks to the current dominance that CZ’s platform has in the crypto space. As capital continues to flow into Binance, particularly in these unpredictable market conditions, it is obvious that the exchange is one of the leaders in the global cryptocurrency scene. For CZ, which I guess is not really a surprise anymore after last week’s CoinDesk interview, the clear lesson to take away from the past is to be thankful for the successes while also learning from the failures to maintain and build upon that success in the years to come. As Binance’s worldwide sway increases, Changpeng Zhao and his team will almost certainly have to confront fresh problems and prospects in the developing domain of blockchain and digital currency. Yet for all the talk, and even some evidence, that a new era of centralized financial power is upon us, Binance remains in no way part of that story. In fact, by the very nature of its being, Binance contradicts it. Here are the reasons why. Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services. Image Source: gulzarkarimn/ 123RF // Image Effects by Colorcinch
