Binance Emerging Market Banking Report
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, published a report on May 9, showing that 77% of its users are based in emerging markets and that those users treat crypto exchanges as substitutes for traditional banking services, according to a CoinDesk report.
What Binance’s Data Shows About Emerging Market Crypto Users
The report describes a pattern Binance calls “shadow banking,” in which users in countries with limited access to formal financial services use cryptocurrency exchanges to store value, send remittances, and conduct everyday transactions. The behavior differs substantially from the speculative trading patterns Binance sees among users in developed markets.
The geographic concentration is striking.
Seventy-seven percent of Binance users being in emerging markets means the exchange’s growth narrative is now largely a story about financial access rather than investment returns. Binance identified sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America as the regions showing the fastest user growth in 2025 and into 2026.
The report also found that stablecoin usage, meaning holdings in cryptocurrencies pegged to a fixed value such as the U.S. dollar, accounts for a disproportionately large share of emerging-market activity on the platform.
Users in high-inflation economies in particular hold dollar-pegged assets as a hedge against local currency depreciation.
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Background: Crypto and Financial Inclusion
The Binance report builds on a trend that researchers and development organizations have tracked since at least 2020. The World Bank has documented that roughly 1.4 billion adults globally remain unbanked, with the highest concentrations in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
Cryptocurrency adoption in those regions accelerated through 2021 and 2022, driven partly by remittance costs and partly by local currency instability.
Nigeria, which ranks among Binance’s largest markets by user count, saw peer-to-peer cryptocurrency trading volumes surge in 2023 and 2024 as the naira lost more than 60% of its value against the dollar. Similar patterns played out in Argentina, Turkey, and Venezuela.
Binance’s decision to publish this data as a formal 2026 report signals that the exchange wants regulators and policymakers to view it as infrastructure for financial inclusion rather than purely as a speculative trading venue, a framing that carries regulatory weight as global frameworks take shape.
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What Comes Next
The report arrives as international regulators including the Financial Action Task Force revisit cryptocurrency compliance requirements for exchanges operating in emerging markets. Binance’s emphasis on financial inclusion may support arguments for lighter-touch regulation in jurisdictions where crypto fills gaps left by traditional banking.
Whether policymakers accept that framing remains uncertain. Binance declined to disclose the precise methodology behind the 77% figure, which limits independent verification of the report’s core claim.
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