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Date: April 8, 2025
Event Name: Hong Kong Crypto Finance Forum
Moderator: Vito, Founder of MetaEra
Guest: He Yi, Co-founder of Binance
On April 8, at the just-concluded Hong Kong Crypto Finance Forum, Binance co-founder He Yi participated in an online fireside chat and discussed Binance’s development path and new trends in crypto finance with MetaEra founder Vito.
He Yi first responded to the reason why she has been "online frequently" on social platforms recently. She believes that founders must stand on the front line, listen to users' voices, and perceive changes in the industry. She also frankly admitted that whether it is product creation, community building, or compliance communication, it should return to the most core point: "whether it solves real problems for users."
In her sharing, she also expressed her views on the current popular market segments: instead of blindly chasing concepts, it is better to solve the needs down to earth; only a clear business model and users willing to pay can support a Web3 project to truly go long-term.
The following is a complete transcript of the conversation:
Vito:
Hello everyone, welcome to today’s fireside chat. We are honored to have Ms. He Yi, co-founder of Binance, to discuss with us “New trends in crypto finance from the development of Binance”.
Vito:
Since the beginning of this year, especially after the Lunar New Year, we have observed an obvious change: Yijie has started to be active on X (Twitter) at a high frequency, which is in sharp contrast to the past few years. Some people even suspect that it is a proxy operation. Can you please talk about what changes have taken place behind the scenes?
He Yi:
Old Binance users may know that I have always called myself the "chief customer service". Since 2017, I have been active on various social platforms such as WeChat groups and Weibo, interacting with users frequently. Such interactions allow me to more keenly discover product problems and user demands, and bring them back to the product team in a timely manner.
Nowadays, the "Founder Model" is popular in Silicon Valley – the founder should be at the forefront. I think we have been in this model from the beginning. It was only because Weibo was blocked that I withdrew from the Chinese social media for a while.
As we all know in the English circle, CZ was very active on the Internet in the past. Now that he has stepped down, we found that Binance’s communication with Chinese users is somewhat disconnected, so I returned to the social media “battlefield”.
In addition, I often emphasize to the management team that we serve two types of people: users and employees. External users need to be heard, and internal employees need to be supported. As managers, we need to create an atmosphere where employees are willing to work hard and proudly say "I am at Binance."
The essence of Binance is three things: first, making good products, second, serving users and employees well, and third, communicating well with regulators. These three points constitute our core competitiveness.
Vito:
Thank you for sharing. I would like to ask, what are the interim results of high-frequency interaction? Have you discovered any new problems in the process? Will you continue to maintain this high frequency in the future?
He Yi:
Of course, I hope to "copy" many of me, so that more employees and executives can have the awareness of "chief customer service". If they do better than me, I can step down from the front line.
However, the reality is that we have entered the Web3 era, where information dissemination has shifted from “one-way” to “multi-directional”, and everyone is an information node. The problem this brings is information overload, where 99.99% of the information may be useless to you, but that 0.01% of “real gold” is extremely valuable.
In addition, when everyone is a KOL, information dissemination is prone to distortion and even rumors. These rumors are ridiculous, but you can't take the time to clarify them one by one.
So you need strong willpower and a firm sense of direction. You know who you are, where you come from, and where you are going. Negative voices are unavoidable, but you must be able to withstand them and realize that this is the "purgatory" that all mature founders must face.
Vito:
You mentioned the “Sunshine” wallet airdrop, the launch of Alpha 2.0 on the chain, and other actions. Is there a unified strategic logic behind this? What goals do you want to achieve?
He Yi:
We must admit that there is still a gap between Binance Wallet and the industry's top wallets. When the product strength is not strong enough, we have to work harder in other aspects and let users wait for us, and we will do better.
Ultimately, any product must return to the core needs of users. Many people clearly distinguish between wallets and exchanges, but in fact, users have long "mixed" these two services.
If a wallet is just a wallet, then why can’t the exchange be used as a wallet when the on-chain wallet users are doing transactions? I am a user who does not trade frequently, and my exchange account is my wallet.
Today, many on-chain wallets do not require KYC or anti-money laundering audits, and can trade millions of tokens; while centralized exchanges have higher compliance thresholds and can only list hundreds of coins. This is not a question of who is higher or lower, but different choices under regulatory policies.
Binance Wallet is conservative because we have suffered losses before and cannot make mistakes in compliance again. This is responsibility, not stupidity.
Vito:
Therefore, Binance's series of adjustments are actually a response to changes in industry trends. What fundamental changes do you think have taken place in the entire crypto industry?
He Yi:
The industry is indeed changing. In the early years, cryptocurrency was a small circle of geeks and idealists. But today, even the most mainstream traditional financial systems, such as the US government, have begun to accept it. Why? Because once technology is proven to be valuable and can improve efficiency, it can be absorbed and utilized by the mainstream.
Crypto ETF is a symbol of this, it is the product of the combination of traditional finance and the crypto world. Supervision is also becoming clearer, and more and more countries and regions have introduced specific frameworks.
On the other hand, the crypto industry itself has also developed from the initial public chains and exchanges to a broader application layer, such as stablecoin cross-border payments, DeFi, and even DePIN, which already have practical use value.
This is just like how Silicon Valley went from being a hippie in the 1960s to becoming a technological powerhouse today. Web3 is the same, it was rebellious in the early days, but it will eventually mature and serve the public.
Vito:
So what do you think of the various "tracks" now – DeFi, RWA, DePIN, etc.? Which direction do you prefer?
He Yi:
I think that instead of asking “which track do you think is good”, we should ask: what problem do you solve? Is anyone willing to pay for your product?
The problem with many Web3 startups is that they have no business model, they talk about it in a profound way but users don’t understand, and they just use data to get listed on exchanges and that’s it. This is unsustainable.
We can’t just chase after concepts. Whose problem have you solved? What’s the user base? Is there a strong demand for this product? These are the real questions.
I also don’t like the labeling distinction of “Web2 vs Web3”. In essence, human nature is universal, and so is business. Whether you use blockchain or not, as long as you can make truly useful products and are willing to give back to the community, you deserve respect.
Successful companies all have several things in common:
1. Timing: standing at the right time;
2. Geographical advantage: Are you doing the things you are good at right?
3. Harmony: Is there a reliable team?
4. Extreme willpower: whether you can withstand all difficulties.
Look at Nvidia, Tesla, and even Binance. They have "escaped death" many times, but it was only because we persisted one step further than others that we survived.
Vito:
Thank you for your wonderful sharing! Today's time is limited, but the content is very rich. If you want to follow Yijie's dynamics, please follow her Twitter and MetaEra. Thank you again, and thank you to everyone present!
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He Yi: Binance’s development path and new trends in crypto finance – PANews
