Binance Bets on Prediction Markets to Launch US Reentry

Binance.US is reportedly looking to move past basic trading as it reenters the American cryptocurrency space.

As CoinDesk reported Tuesday (April 7), this effort is being headed by Stephen Gregory, a compliance veteran who became CEO of Binance.US last month. The report noted that he had held leadership roles at Currency.com, Gemini and CEX.io, bringing regulatory-focused expertise to a company hoping to regain a foothold in the U.S. after a rocky period.

The company had faced lawsuits from the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice, the former of which dismissed its case last summer.

Binance was also hit with criminal charges and paid a $4.3 billion penalty, while founder and ex-CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao pleaded guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act. He agreed to pay a $50 million fine and resign, but was later pardoned by President Donald Trump.

Now, the CoinDesk report said, Binance.US is now trying to rebuild. That means expanding beyond spot crypto trading into new areas such as derivatives and prediction markets as it competes with the likes of Coinbase and Kraken.

In its heyday four years ago, Binance.US held around 20% of the American market. That number has since fallen to almost zero, CoinDesk said, citing its own indices data.

“Prediction markets are super hot. Everybody’s talking about that,” Gregory said, naming one area under consideration.

The report noted that this is part of a larger industry trend. With trading fees compressing and products seeming more similar, exchanges are seeking ways to stand out.

For example, Coinbase has been working on becoming an “everything exchange” that offers services well beyond crypto trading. Gregory said he expects that to continue and for the industry to follow a trajectory similar to equities, where commissions largely vanished and firms had to find alternative revenue sources.

He added that the U.S. entity now operates independently, with its own governance and a “very, very strong compliance program,” he said.

As PYMNTS wrote earlier this year, compliance has become the crypto sector’s “cost of doing business” as the industry changes.

“For crypto firms, the operational implications of the growing compliance-first pivot are significant. Compliance teams must scale. Data systems must mature,” that report said. “Jurisdictional differences must be navigated with care. The cost of doing business will rise, particularly for smaller players. But so will the barriers to entry, which may ultimately reduce the prevalence of fly-by-night operators that have long plagued the industry’s reputation.”