The 5th edition of the Binance Blockchain Week kicked off in Dubai on Wednesday, December 3. CEO Richard Teng and Strategy honcho Michael Saylor took centre stage at the beginning of the event to share fresh announcements and extended vision for the future of crypto with community members, industry leaders, and regulators making up for the hundreds of attendees.
Highlights from Teng’s address
Binance CEO Richard Teng, in a major announcement, revealed that exchange co-founder Ye Hi will now be joining him as a co-CEO of the company. Teng did not get into the details of this upper leadership rearrangement and Binance’s need for a co-CEO, but he did say that the development is a natural trajectory for He after her continuous efforts in shaping up the exchange.
In order to have youngsters understand crypto and financial services at an early age, Teng also announced the launch of “Binance Junior” for individuals aged between six to 17 years. The platform with full suite of parental control will allow the creation of digital piggybanks for youngsters. Essentially, parents will be able to create crypto sub-accounts to impart financial habits into the kids while also growing their crypto holdings.
Source: Binance
Teng, 56, said that the recent regulatory and technical advancements in the crypto space has transformed the global financial landscape by offering instant cross-border money transfers at a fraction of the cost compared to traditional fiat payment methods. These developments have attracted more people towards exploring the sector in 2025, he said.
“This year, we saw the number of Binance Pay merchants starting the year at 12,000; now it has reached close to 21 million. Binance Pay has processed more than 270 billion worth of transactions. Just look at the phenomenal growth,” he said.
Subtly addressing the rising number of cyber attacks targeting the crypto sector, Teng made it a point to mention that Binance, this year, prevented losses within the range of $7 billion to $14 billion – which could have caused financial losses to an estimate of nine million people.
“Growing responsibly is the only way to ensure long term success. Blockchain and AI are two fundamental technologies that will go hand in hand to shape the future of finance and beyond, and that’s why we continue to push ahead and launch exciting AI initiatives and products aimed at simplifying crypto trading for the masses and improving the experience for our users,” Teng noted.
During his speech, Teng lauded the governments of nations including the U.S., Bhutan, and the UAE for taking pro-crypto regulatory approaches and allowing the sector to show its potential.
Here’s what Saylor said
Serial crypto acquirer and billionaire entrepreneur Michael Saylor marked his debut at the Binance Blockchain Week this year.
Talking to the media and other attendees at the event, Saylor said, “There’s a revolution in the capital markets going on and and that revolution is impacting the capital markets for currency, globally. It’s impacting the capital markets for equity. It’s impacting the capital markets for credit. Its digital capital. And why is it digital capital? Because the President of the United States, Donald Trump, has styled himself the Bitcoin president.”
At a time when Saylor is facing questions around Strategy’s BTC purchases and the asset’s volatility, the billionaire said – Bitcoin’s volatility is vital because that is what makes it useful for investors to enter the ecosystem.
In a brief conversation with CoinHeadlines, Saylor reiterated that there is no scenario under which he sees himself selling his BTC stash and that he plans to HODL the asset despite controversies and volatility.
The Binance Blockchain Week, being held in Dubai-based Coca Cola Arena, is slated to wrap up on December 4.