Binance Co-Founder Addresses Asset Listing Policies, Debunks FUD

Recently, claims surfaced from the CEO of Moonrock Capital — a crypto advisory and investment firm — alleging that Binance requested 15% of an undisclosed project's total token supply to secure a listing on its platform. In response, Binance co-founder Yi He denied these accusations, reaffirming the exchange's listing policies.

Yi He clarified that Binance does not demand a percentage of a project’s token supply or a fixed fee for listing. Since 2018, Binance’s policy has required listing fees to be fully transparent, with 100% of the proceeds donated to charity. The policy specifies: 

"Project teams can suggest the amount they wish to contribute as a 'listing fee,' or more accurately, a 'donation.' Binance will not specify an amount or require a minimum fee."

These allegations have reignited discussions about listing fee policies across centralized exchanges. Sonic co-founder and developer Andre Cronje joined the debate, raising similar concerns about Coinbase's practices. In September 2024, centralized exchanges saw a substantial decrease in trading volume, with Binance’s spot trading volume declining by 23%, and other exchanges like OKX, HTX, Coinbase, Kraken, and Bybit experiencing similar drops of 20-30%, according to CCData.

Reasons for this downturn include escalating geopolitical tensions, investor caution due to the upcoming U.S. elections, and increased activity on decentralized exchanges.

On October 11, Binance announced the listing of Scroll, an Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution. This decision sparked criticism from the crypto community, who viewed it as conflicting with Scroll’s decentralized principles. In response, a user named Zeng Jiajun posed a rhetorical question to the community: "Imagine Vitalik Buterin paying 5.5% to OKX" to list Ether (ETH) — highlighting the ongoing debate around high listing fees and the expectation of token contributions by centralized exchanges.