Binance Eyes Stock Trading in Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, Brazil

Binance is weighing stock offerings from Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan and Brazil, co-CEO Richard Teng told Fortune, as the world's largest crypto exchange pushes to become an all-in-one trading platform.

Teng framed the move as survival strategy, not diversification for its own sake. "We are weatherproofing ourselves," he said on the sidelines of TOKEN2049 in Singapore. "A lot of our users say: 'Hey, I want to have exposure to, let's say, the top 10 Hong Kong stocks, top 10 Korean counters, top 10 Taiwanese, Brazilian counters.' We're looking at what our users demand and giving them that."

The exchange isn't starting from zero. In 2026, Binance launched trading in tokenized U.S. stocks and commodity derivatives, including precious metals and oil. It also rolled out pre-IPO perpetual futures settled in USDT, a dollar-linked stablecoin, letting traders speculate on expected valuations of private companies like Anthropic.

Why is Binance diversifying now?

The timing tracks a prolonged digital asset slump. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies remain far below their October 2025 highs. Coinbase posted a net loss of $359.5 million in Q2 2026 — its third consecutive quarterly loss — as transaction revenue declined.

That pressure is reshaping the whole sector:

• Coinbase rolled out traditional stock trading, perpetual futures and prediction markets last December, chasing an "everything exchange" model.
• OKX last week unveiled plans to offer tokenized shares in dozens of U.S. companies through a joint venture with Intercontinental Exchange, plus a new app for U.S.-dollar-linked stablecoins.
• Crypto platforms are pushing for clearer rules to attract institutional money.

Traditional finance is moving the other direction, embracing digital assets. Teng sees regulation as the gate to mainstream adoption. "The first 3% of [crypto] adopters didn't need certainty, and they didn't want certainty," he said. "But for crypto to go mainstream, we need not just retail investors, but also sophisticated institutions that want clear rules and regulations they can operate within."

Who does tokenization actually serve?

Teng pitches tokenized stocks and round-the-clock trading as tools for investors outside major financial centers. "Many people are still constrained by the geography that they are born in," he said, noting that people in emerging markets across Africa and Latin America often can't access U.S. equities despite America running the world's largest capital market. "If we tokenize U.S. stocks, these people can get exposure to companies around the world they may not have had access to previously."

The numbers back his premise. Roughly 1.3 billion adults worldwide still lack a formal bank account, according to a 2025 World Bank report. Binance effectively operates as a shadow bank for them — savings, yield generation, cross-border payments — with low entry thresholds into global stocks.

Later this month, Binance adds another product: Binance AI Pro, an AI-powered assistant that automates market analysis, strategy execution and position management. Teng expects more trading to shift to AI agents as investors grow comfortable setting their parameters. "It has been a great leveler," he said. "But the nature of trading will be different."

Where do the 'clear rules' come from?

Teng's regulatory instincts have an institutional pedigree. Binance hired him as CEO in November 2023, after founder Changpeng "CZ" Zhao failed to register Binance as a money-transmitting business and breached U.S. sanctions laws. The criminal plea cost Binance $4.3 billion in penalties and forfeitures; Zhao personally paid a $50 million fine and served a four-month prison sentence, before receiving a pardon from U.S. President Donald Trump.

Before Binance, Teng worked the traditional side: the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the country's central bank, and the Singapore Exchange. He later served as CEO of the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of the Abu Dhabi Global Market, where a 2017 U.S. visit first exposed him to blockchain.

That background shapes his stance on regulation. "If you look at many different regulatory agencies around the world, the key focus is just to mitigate risk, but if you do that to the extreme, that means very minimal or no growth," Teng said. At MAS, he said, his job was dual: regulate and grow the financial sector. "It's not only about looking at the risk dimension of the ecosystem, but also how you mitigate and manage it in order to support growth."

His conviction that crypto broadens financial access has personal roots. "I was blessed to be born and bred in Singapore, where we had access to multiple banks and investment platforms, but many people around the world were not as fortunate."

If Bitcoin stays depressed, the exchanges that survive will be the ones selling more than coins. Binance's bet is that the next leg of its business runs through Seoul, Hong Kong and São Paulo brokerage feeds — not another crypto rally.

By Grace Kim