First Lady of Binance, Doesn't See Many Worthy Coins on the Market

Listing is considered a major milestone for a coin, but listing on the world’s biggest exchange, Binance, can be a game-changer. Even unconfirmed reports might significantly push up token prices. This week, Binance co-founder He Yi shared her thoughts on the listing process and related issues. In short, she believes that even though Binance only aims to list reliable projects – which is difficult – it faces criticism regardless of whatever final choices the company makes.

Before listing on Binance, any coin undergoes a careful examination of different features, including technical foundation, market potential, and investment backing. The team also checks whether a project’s lifecycle is long enough and has sustainable development potential. 

“Binance’s fundamental function is to provide popular and trending projects in the market while filtering out projects with high risk of collapse and selecting those with potential,” - said He Yi.

Interestingly, Yi pointed out that over the last year, there haven’t been many high-quality and trending projects in the market, which makes the listing team’s work “awkward.” 

Data shows that on major exchanges, including Binance, Coinbase, Bybit, and others, coin listings were cumulatively up 11.6% in the first six months of the year.* The increase was likely driven by the rally in crypto prices. Confirming Yi’s statement, experts say that Binance is listing “less aggressively than before.” Apparently, this new pattern is, in part, due to the exchange’s new compliance strategy that includes stricter listing requirements. The strategy came into force after the exchange reached a resolution with U.S. authorities, and CZ quit the exchange. 

*This number doesn’t include hundreds of the trending meme coins that are issued and listed daily. Anyway, not many meme coins are traded on Binance, apparently because of this multi-layered evaluation process and, perhaps, because of a matter of prestige. 

The importance of listing on Binance in the public eye sometimes creates unexpected problems. For example, Yi explained that some people spread rumors about a listing and then use these rumors to pressure Binance to list. The company tries to minimize the time gap between the announcement of a listing and an actual listing to prevent rumors of front-running. 

Users’ expectations are one of the main challenges for the exchange when it comes to listing. They expect enormous returns, which cannot be guaranteed by anybody, including Binance, and are simply unrealistic as the competition in the crypto market increases. 

“With increasing industry competition, high-information asymmetry opportunities for 100x or 1000x returns are diminishing. Everyone hopes the coins listed on Binance will rise, but that’s unrealistic.”

Earlier this year, researchers noticed that most of the tokens listed on Binance since the beginning of 2024  have fallen significantly compared to their prices on the day of listing, and only a few achieved growth. We also observed that the majority of new listings at the moment of writing were ‘in the red.’

He Yi, a former talk show host, is believed to be among the smartest and most resilient people and one of the most powerful women in the crypto industry. She has been with CZ from the very beginning and was reportedly the one to introduce him to the crypto world.

Before Binance, the two worked together at OKCoin. He Yi joined Binance when BNB drastically fell straight after the launch and managed to resolve the crisis. Later, she played several major roles in the company, including CMO. Several times, she saved the company at the most critical moments but mainly remained behind the scenes.

Lately, she has become much more active on social media and public events. Not only is she the company’s Chief Customer Service Officer, but she is also the mother of CZ’s three children. In fact, He Yi is believed to have been running the whole company after his departure.

Obviously, He Yi career has not been without controversy. There have been rumors and speculations of preferential treatment and conflicts of interest in coin listings. In the latest interview, she specifically outlined that the decision to list isn’t made by a single person.