Binance Wants To Become A 'Super App'

Binance is setting its sights on a transformation that goes well beyond cryptocurrency trading. Speaking to CoinDesk on the occasion of the exchange's ninth anniversary, Shunyet Jan, Binance's head of spot trading and derivatives, outlined a strategy centered on payments and broader financial services as the platform's next major growth engine.

"We're trying to not just be a crypto exchange, but be a super app that involves payment," Jan said. Binance believes its next phase of growth will come from payments and financial services rather than cryptocurrency trading alone, as stablecoins reshape how people use digital assets.

Stablecoins as the Growth Driver

While trading remains at the core of Binance's business, stablecoins are increasingly being used for payments and transfers, creating a larger market than trading alone. Jan pointed to the scale of the opportunity: "If you think of us as a payment provider, then that number becomes much bigger."

End-user stablecoin payments are running at an annualized $390 billion, up over 100% year-on-year, with B2B payments rising 733% and card-linked stablecoin spending increasing 673%. Stablecoin circulating supply has surpassed $320 billion, with monthly on-chain volumes reaching $7.2 trillion, briefly exceeding the U.S. ACH network earlier this year.

Jan said demand is particularly strong in emerging markets, where some users have limited access to banking services or investment products. "Sometimes they trust us more than the local government or local banks," he said.

Product Expansion Backs the Ambition

Binance has spent the past year expanding beyond trading services, adding products such as tokenized stocks, exchange-traded funds, and other financial services. Starting June 1, 2026, the platform began letting users trade more than 7,000 US stocks and ETFs, all settled in stablecoins like USDC and USDT, or in $BNB. In its first week of stock trading, over 80% of the volume came from emerging-market users.

On the payments side, the infrastructure is already taking shape. Binance Pay announced a roadmap in May 2026 to extend its real-world QR payment network to more than 10 countries by Q3 2026, up from six countries currently live across Asia Pacific and Latin America. As of March 2026, the platform serves over 21 million merchants.

Binance is not the only exchange with super app ambitions. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said his platform envisioned eventually becoming a "super app" in 2023, like Chinese tech giant Tencent's WeChat, currently the largest such app in the world with 1.4 billion users. However, Binance's combination of scale, stablecoin infrastructure, and emerging-market reach gives it a distinct position from which to pursue that goal.

Binance now counts more than 323 million registered users, representing a 7% increase during the first half of 2026. The exchange has processed approximately $156.4 trillion in cumulative trading volume, including around $11.4 trillion during the first half of 2026 alone.

Sources:
CoinDesk: Binance bets on becoming a crypto super app as stablecoins reshape growth
FinanceFeeds: Binance Pay targets 10 countries for QR crypto payments by Q3
Alpaca: Binance launches US stocks and ETFs trading