Speaker 1: Let's go now to Abu Dhabi, where I'm delighted to
Speaker 1: be joined by the CEO of the world's biggest crypto
Speaker 1: currency exchange by trading volume, that's Finances, Richard Tang. Richard,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for making time for us. We've
Speaker 1: seen Donald Trump picking pretty crypto friendly picks in the
Speaker 1: form of his aizar and in the form of his
Speaker 1: sec chair. Where does that likely change in the regulatory
Speaker 1: stamps in the US leave you at binance.
Speaker 2: Well, I do think that if you look at twenty
Speaker 2: twenty four is a landmark. Yeah, right, So if you
Speaker 2: help people twenty four bit coin will give one hundred thousand,
Speaker 2: they'll be etf being approved for bigcoin, TM, Solana and
Speaker 2: several others, and as well as institutions. I mean, the
Speaker 2: largest sm manager in the world, black Rock has conference
Speaker 2: skeptic to deliver. I think people will not believe you
Speaker 2: if I come to the end of twenty twenty four
Speaker 2: orders have come true.
Speaker 3: We have now a very crypto friendly president in.
Speaker 2: The States and extremely smart strategy appointing AI in crypto
Speaker 2: Za on that front, because this too represents the most
Speaker 2: innovative technology for the future, and countries.
Speaker 3: Will do extremely well. I mean Awadawd this week the
Speaker 3: capital of capital.
Speaker 2: Again, Abu w and Ue has been very foresightful in
Speaker 2: that front to start investing AI blockchain to move those
Speaker 2: rarely on. So we are seeing seeing the results of
Speaker 2: all those deployment in Abu w and Ue now. So
Speaker 2: countries will do very very well to continue to focus
Speaker 2: on this two technology, and we will continue to focus
Speaker 2: on serving our fast expanding user base. Are closer toteen
Speaker 2: million users globally now seventy million onboard year alone, so
Speaker 2: they're very excited with the junior here.
Speaker 1: But of course finances under monitorship by the U sdo
Speaker 1: J and the US Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. Would
Speaker 1: you be looking to ask the Trump administration to shorten
Speaker 1: or terminate the monitorships given the President elects kind of preference,
Speaker 1: as we say, for looser crypto regulation.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean any of those discussions. I think it's new.
Speaker 2: I think I believe that compliance is the way to go, right,
Speaker 2: So we have finance has always been a user for
Speaker 2: this organization. By going forward, given that regulations is going
Speaker 2: to be much clearer throughout the world, we have the
Speaker 2: ability to invest very heavily in compland space and want
Speaker 2: to make compliance and competitive advantage for ourselves. So last
Speaker 2: year alone, we invested two hundred and thirteen million US
Speaker 2: dollars just on our compliance program, which is a more
Speaker 2: than thirty percent increased compatitor before and this year you
Speaker 2: go up even more.
Speaker 3: Got the most licensed and regulated.
Speaker 2: Exchange globally now with more than twenty different jurisdiction than
Speaker 2: license and regulate US more recently in places exciting places
Speaker 2: like India and Argentina.
Speaker 3: So we are working with.
Speaker 2: Global policy makers lawmakers to really support the cryptal journey,
Speaker 2: to support the cryptal deployment, and we continue to work
Speaker 2: very closely US monitors on that on that front to
Speaker 2: continue to see whether the areas that we can enhance
Speaker 2: the work have further I think.
Speaker 3: Is a good competitive advantage.
Speaker 2: We are able to invest in places that our competitors
Speaker 2: are not being able to invest in.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, are you looking to re enter that US
Speaker 1: market then more forcefully? And if they introduce a stable
Speaker 1: coin framework, would you be reviving big binance USD B
Speaker 1: USD or would we launching a similar token?
Speaker 2: Perhaps globally we are supporting crypto adoption, so on different
Speaker 2: fronts right, so stable coins, other innovation in this space,
Speaker 2: cross water payment, etcetera, etcetera. Whether we re entered the
Speaker 2: US market, I think there's a premature discussion. As of now,
Speaker 2: we are focusing on our global deployment. We have growing
Speaker 2: very quickly and very happy with the progress or what
Speaker 2: we're seeing.
Speaker 3: I think this is alone.
Speaker 2: If you look at the net influence into finance, it
Speaker 2: crosses more into the billin right. If you put our
Speaker 2: net influence versus the ten largest exchange the next ten
Speaker 2: largest exchange pull together, we are forty percent much more
Speaker 2: than the ten largest exchange pull together. So you can
Speaker 2: see the phenomenon and growth. We have seen a lot
Speaker 2: of new institutions being onboarded and with the US going
Speaker 2: to announce a big coin strategic reserve and Brazil considering it,
Speaker 2: I do believe that many other countries around the world
Speaker 2: will start to deploy on that front. So it's not
Speaker 2: only the countries. It's a softwagn rail of funds, institutions,
Speaker 2: foundations and down and sign up with individual so.
Speaker 3: They're going to start relocating this space. So the future
Speaker 3: is extremely bright.
Speaker 1: Well, so you've been in post for just over a
Speaker 1: year now, Richard, I wonder what you would say the
Speaker 1: biggest changes you've implemented in that time and as you
Speaker 1: look head, are you planning to add more independent advisors
Speaker 1: to your board for example?
Speaker 3: No, we have a strong board of directors today.
Speaker 2: We have bought actors, are seven three independent directors with
Speaker 2: independent chairman. So we are in a very good place
Speaker 2: in terms of corporate structure. I think we have really
Speaker 2: moved from a founder CEO led company to a board
Speaker 2: led company. So the senior management of the company work
Speaker 2: very closely with the border of directors to chart the
Speaker 2: strategy and the deployment of the company going forward. Right,
Speaker 2: and we have continued to move from strength to strength.
Speaker 2: We have not only focused on our investors our users.
Speaker 2: We invest a lot into security and I mentioned compliance
Speaker 2: and all those are key areas. I mean this yet alone,
Speaker 2: you'll see plenty of exchanges being hacked around the world, right,
Speaker 2: So Japan, Bazarex in India, INDO decks in Indonesia, BTC
Speaker 2: and the least goes on is an area that we
Speaker 2: focus a lot of attention to. I mean, we are
Speaker 2: the exchange that set us like more than one billion
Speaker 2: just to compensate users just into us in the event
Speaker 2: of antous event of the security head right on that front,
Speaker 2: the in the form of Safoo fund, So we go
Speaker 2: beyond what many regulators prescribe in terms of user protection
Speaker 2: and helping our users detect the fraud and scams on
Speaker 2: that front, helping them two point four billion in terms
Speaker 2: of potential.
Speaker 3: Losses just for the first half of this year.
Speaker 2: So these are areas that it pays a lot of
Speaker 2: attention to and we're part of all those things that
Speaker 2: were time.
Speaker 1: Just finally, Richard, as you mentioned you're there at RBW
Speaker 1: Finance Week, I wonder what opportunities you see specifically in
Speaker 1: the Middle East region.
Speaker 2: Well, it's huge. So just in newear loone cryptal adoption
Speaker 2: is close to forty percent. I think the same team
Speaker 2: is repeated throughout the media, is right. So our the
Speaker 2: ab was when our CEO at law Gologle Market we
Speaker 2: are one of the first in the world to introduce
Speaker 2: a crypto regulatory framework togethern this sector in twenty eighteen, right,
Speaker 2: so we are quite ahead of the game then, and
Speaker 2: you can see how would that be continue to grow
Speaker 2: up by leaps and bounds on the blockchain crypto as
Speaker 2: well as the AI space. Right so, I think that
Speaker 2: same team is repeated throughout the media. Is in Barian,
Speaker 2: in Dubai, and the rest of the media is you know,
Speaker 2: very young demographics, tech savvy people understand crypto so and
Speaker 2: there are many parts of media. Is South Africa region
Speaker 2: where financial inclusion is slow, which makes the crypto becomes
Speaker 2: the only means that people can make payments, can get
Speaker 2: access to the bank sort of payment system. They can
Speaker 2: have a style wealth in the form of table coins
Speaker 2: of crypto, and they're much better. I traveled the region
Speaker 2: quite extensively and better people come up to tiny in
Speaker 2: the last few years going through hyperinflationary situation where they
Speaker 2: have domestic fat currency depreciated sharply.
Speaker 3: The our family wellbeing is preserved by holding.
Speaker 2: On to crypto and stable coins, right so I have
Speaker 2: many of these stories repeated trout to me the central
Speaker 2: of the world when I visit many of these countries.
Speaker 1: Okay, thank you so much, Richard Tang, CEO of Finance.
Speaker 1: Lovely to have you with us on the program from
Speaker 1: Abu Dhabi Finance Week