Share this article
Binance Donated $2.4M in Coronavirus Medical Supplies; CZ Pledges More
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said his exchange had donated $2.4 million in crypto to buying medical supplies to fight the novel coronavirus outbreak, and plans to donate up to $5 million total.
By Danny Nelson
Updated Sep 14, 2021, 8:25 a.m. Published Apr 3, 2020, 6:20 p.m.
Make us preferred on Google
Binance says it's pouring millions into the global fight against the coronavirus.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
In an ask-me-anything (AMA) Friday, CEO Changpeng Zhao said his exchange has committed at least $2.4 million in crypto to buy sorely needed COVID-19 medical supplies and plans to donate up to $2 million more through its philanthropic arm, the Binance Charity Foundation (BCF).
“We are donating physical supplies, masks, other medical supplies, hopefully, eventually, ventilators.” Zhao said. He estimated Binance’s total contributions will add up to “somewhere around $5 million.”
While Zhao said Binance had already donated the $2.4 million, BCF’s website only noted $1 million donated so far.
Zhao said these supplies are shipping directly to hospitals in need. BCF’s early efforts focused on China: it has delivered hundreds of thousands of personal protective equipment (PPE) items to 300 Chinese hospitals as of March 20, according to BCF’s website.
PPE will now flow to other sickened countries.
“I think there's a shipment going to Italy this week,” Zhao said, “and then hopefully we will be able to cover the U.S., Germany and some of the other countries that are really severely impacted.”
BCF has also raised about $200,000 in crypto from the public, according to Zhao.
AMA
Much of the AMA focused on Binance’s recent acquisition of CoinMarketCap (CMC). Zhao repeatedly said he has no plans to interfere with CMC’s independent operations or turn it into a traffic feed for Binance, already the world’s largest exchange by volume.
Many observers questioned whether CMC would remain independent after first hearing about the acquisition.
He ran through a number of recent Binance announcements. The exchange opened a South African Rand fiat on-ramp, launched its first mining pool, partnered with the Brave browser and cut leveraged tokens in the past two weeks.
Binance also opened its Korean exchange for account registration on April 2. That exchange shares liquidity with Binance though the Binance Cloud platform.
More For You
KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market.
What to know:
- KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume in 2025, equivalent to an average of roughly $114 billion per month, marking its strongest year on record.
- This performance translated into an all-time high share of centralised exchange volume, as KuCoin’s activity expanded faster than aggregate CEX volumes, which slowed during periods of lower market volatility.
- Spot and derivatives volumes were evenly split, each exceeding $500 billion for the year, signalling broad-based usage rather than reliance on a single product line.
- Altcoins accounted for the majority of trading activity, reinforcing KuCoin’s role as a primary liquidity venue beyond BTC and ETH at a time when majors saw more muted turnover.
- Even as overall crypto volumes softened mid-year, KuCoin maintained elevated baseline activity, indicating structurally higher user engagement rather than short-lived volume spikes.
More For You
Here's what bitcoin bulls are saying as price remains stuck during global rally
It's about a lot more than "zooming out." Supply overhangs and investor "muscle memory" regarding gold help explain bitcoin's poor absolute and relative performance.
What to know:
- Bitcoin has failed so far to act as an inflation hedge or safe-haven asset, lagging badly behind gold, which has surged amid high inflation, wars, and interest rate uncertainty.
- Crypto advocates argue that bitcoin’s weakness reflects a temporary supply overhang, investor “muscle memory” favoring familiar precious metals and its correlation with risk assets, rather than a collapse in long-term demand.
- Many bitcoin proponents still see BTC as a superior long-term store of value and “digital gold,” predicting that, once traditional hard assets are overbought, capital will rotate into bitcoin, allowing it to “catch up” to gold.
Top Stories
