Yet, that’s the side story.

Most industry observers would agree given Binance’s quality platform and business practices, it was just a matter of time before they seized market leadership.

The real story, we believe, is that Binance is probably the fastest profitable startup to achieve unicorn status (private company with $1bn+ valuation) in history.

Binance is valued at not $1bn+ but closer to $2bn+.

And they did it in less than 6 months. Yes, you read it right, 6 months.

Per chart below, some 20 US private firms became unicorns in under half a year (if anyone has a list of the international ones, please share it with us). None, we believe were profitable at the time.

Source: CB Insights

We believe the other “members” were all loss-making at the time of being minted unicorns. In crypto, half a dozen “entities” have raised 9 figure ICOs with coins trading at billions plus market caps.

However, they have no products or revenues. In contrast, while we don’t have access to the accounts, we know Binance is highly profitable. Their core business is simple to understand — to be the most robust, safe, service-oriented, crypto-currency exchange, helping investors and traders buy/sell, while taking a commission.

What determines its market cap? In August, Coinbase raised $100m from prominent VCs at $1.6bn, confirming its status as the first “Bitcoin” unicorn. While their business models are not identical, Binance likely has surpassed Coinbase in trading volume and at its current rate should take global #1, given that it operates in Asia (Japan/China) and Asia is 40%+ of global Bitcoin trading. Binance is also in a good position to be a major “ecosystem” player in the region and globally.

We can also argue Binance’s valuation is even more “real” than Coinbase’s — though both have passed $1bn valuations in private venture funding, Binance actually has tokens (BNB) that trade 24/7 at the whim of supply and demand. As of today, BNB trades at about $8 with 99m tokens circulating given the “float” market cap of $800m+. Earlier this week, BNB shot north of $10, valuing the float at $1bn+. The circulating supply along with BNB held by founders, insiders and early investors is 199m, hence BNB’s value is closer to $2bn. Note Binance has other businesses not captured by its stock value.

BNB has soared, in recent weeks, very much in line with its customer acquisitions, coins traded and trading volume:

Source: various, Digital Alchemy Holdings

Unless we missed another firm, Binance can go into history books as the fastest profitable unicorn in history, achieving $2bn+ valuation in under half a year. Incredible.