Changpeng Zhao (CZ), CEO of the leading crypto exchange Binance, struck a positive note, saying that crypto market remains in a good position. Speaking in CNBC‘s Crypto Trader show, CZ seemed unconcerned by the slump that has hoarded the crypto industry since the turn of the year.

Crypto market is still growing

Bitcoin reached its all-time peak so far on December 17th, briefly climbing above the $20,000 mark. However, the following year has been harsh for the flagship cryptocurrency and blockchain industry in general. With most digital assets shedding around 70-80 percent of their price, the crypto industry market cap has shrunk fourfold since the happy days of last December.

Nonetheless, CZ remains optimistic, claiming that even though the trading volume is down by nearly 90 percent compared to January, it is still significantly bigger than a year or two ago. Zhao has confirmed that Binance remains “a very healthy business” and is still profitable. CZ has developed Binance from zero to the largest crypto exchange in the world in six months and has been placed 3rd on the Forbes’ “Richest people in cryptocurrency” list. His net worth is estimated at around $1.5 billion.

The crypto billionaire has also claimed that, “Right now we are still signing up a steady amount of new users every day so from what we are seeing, it’s very healthy actually. The number of new users and the amount of crypto we hold are increasing very steadily. So if you look our cold wallets, the amount of BTC we hold, we have just seen an increase in people depositing Bitcoin to our exchange.“

Decreasing trading volumes indicate that crypto markets are maturing, Zhao said. Speaking about what could trigger the next bull run, CZ admitted he had no clue, although he is hopeful that institutionals entering market could provide the spark.

The real crypto trading volume might be way bigger

There have been numerous reports this year that the crypto over-the-counter (OTC) market might be just as big as the crypto exchange market. CoinMarketCap and other data providers use information from Binance and other exchanges to provide their reports. However, the OTC market, where big institutional investors usually do business, remains unchecked.

CZ revealed that, “What I’ve heard is the OTC market is at least as large as the live recorded volumes [on exchanges]. So that is at least 50 percent of volumes that is not being reported on CoinMarketCap. But we’re not heading to that business, so we don’t know the real volumes.“

Binance is the 2nd-biggest digital asset exchange at press time, with a 24-hour trading volume of $567 million.

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