On June 24, 2026, the cryptocurrency industry was undergoing a quiet but significant split. On one side, Binance’s license application under Europe’s MiCA regulatory framework experienced a phased adjustment. On the other side, some competitors, led by OKX founder Star Xu, began aggressively hyping the concept of “compliance,” attempting to package OKX’s regulatory status as a “badge of honor” that supposedly places it above the industry leader. At OKX’s annual dinner in early 2026, Star Xu made it clear that the platform would shift its positioning from a high-leverage traffic machine to one that “takes on more industry responsibility,” actively distancing itself from the narrative of getting rich overnight through 100x leverage. Later in June, Xu published another long article, systematically framing Binance’s competitive advantages as “regulatory arbitrage” and a “speculative narrative cycle.”
After news emerged on June 24 that Binance’s license application under Europe’s MiCA regulatory framework had entered a phased adjustment, Star Xu even pinned that article and repeatedly posted tweets attacking Binance while promoting OKX’s so-called compliance “justice.” The subtext of Xu’s narrative is clear and direct: compliance is the ultimate path, while innovation is merely a speculative game born out of regulatory gaps.
But is that really the case?
When the “compliance” described by Star Xu is elevated from an industry baseline into a marketing high ground, and when the core selling point of an exchange degenerates from what it can do into what it has not done, we have to ask a more fundamental question: behind the excessive emphasis on compliance, is there actually a collective loss of innovative capability?
1. Compliance Is Not a Get-Out-of-Jail-Free Card, Nor Is It a Badge to Show Off
First, we need to clarify a basic concept: what is the essence of compliance?
Compliance is a baseline, not a ceiling. It is a guardrail to protect users, not a marketing tool for PR campaigns. The cryptocurrency industry was born after the 2008 financial crisis, and its core spirit was precisely a rebellion against the centralized monopoly and regulatory failures of traditional finance.
If an exchange treats compliance as its only selling point and promotes it everywhere, that actually exposes its overall weakness in product capability, technology, and liquidity. Only when the product itself lacks highlights does “we obey the rules” become the biggest highlight.
It is like a race car driver repeatedly emphasizing on the track that he has fastened his seat belt. Is it important? Of course. But people buy tickets to watch speed, skill, and overtaking — not to see how properly a safety belt is worn.
OKX treats regulatory certificates as badges of honor, as if obtaining a license naturally grants it industry leadership. The problem with this mindset is that compliance is an entry threshold, not a trophy. Once everyone crosses that threshold, what determines who runs ahead will always be product strength, innovation, and insight into user demand — not who got the admission ticket first.
Besides, Star Xu’s OKX does not even hold more regulatory licenses than Binance.
It is worth noting that, as of June 2026, according to data from the European Securities and Markets Authority, among more than 1,200 pre-registered companies, only 210 had obtained full authorization. This shows that compliance under the MiCA framework is itself a long marathon, not a short sprint. Star Xu using phased progress in a compliance process as a weapon to overpower competitors is neither professional nor respectable.
2. The Cost of Excessive Compliance: “Pseudo-Safety” Bought at the Expense of Industry Innovation
If Star Xu’s promotion of compliance through OKX is a marketing strategy, then giving up innovation for the sake of compliance is a strategic tragedy.
Take OKX as an example. In Star Xu’s narrative framework, OKX wants to “provide richer and more diversified financial services” and shift “from speculation to asset allocation.” It sounds noble, but if we look closer, what is the essence of this roadmap? It is the downgrading of a cryptocurrency exchange into a crypto version of a traditional Web2 brokerage.
When OKX begins to emphasize “long-term trust accumulation” rather than growth, and when its product focus shifts from crypto-native assets to RWA, equities, bonds, and art, it may sound compliant and stable. But what is the cost?
The cost is that the most valuable asset of the crypto industry is being lost: innovation.
In order to cater to absolute compliance standards in specific regions, OKX has adopted an almost one-size-fits-all conservative strategy in areas such as infrastructure building, Web3 innovation, new types of derivatives, frontier asset launches, and experimental liquidity solutions.
In sharp contrast, Binance continued to launch a series of truly crypto-native product innovations in 2026.
Binance launched Pre-IPO perpetual contracts linked to private technology companies such as SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic. The first SpaceX-related contract recorded cumulative trading volume of more than $280 million in its first five days. Within 18 days of launch, Pre-IPO perpetual contracts reached a cumulative trading volume of $2.5 billion. By June, Binance accounted for 83% of the entire market’s Pre-IPO perpetual contract trading volume. This type of product brings Pre-IPO exposure, traditionally available only to venture capital investors and institutional buyers, to ordinary users through a crypto-native format: margin trading, 24/7 availability, and sufficient liquidity.
Binance launched bStocks, converting regulated, custodian-backed U.S. equities into a crypto-native format that can be transferred between wallets and DeFi protocols. This is not only an important milestone in RWA tokenization, but also an innovative attempt to seamlessly connect traditional financial assets with the crypto world.
Binance Wallet launched a Web3 API, allowing developers to programmatically access on-chain transactions and market data across networks including Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, and Solana.
On June 24, 2026, Binance Alpha officially listed Nesa, or NES, jointly supported by BNB Chain and Binance Labs to help early-stage Web3 builders grow.
In June 2026 alone, Binance listed ARXUSDT perpetual contracts, as well as multiple TradFi perpetual contracts such as MVLLUSDT, TQQQUSDT, and SQQQUSDT.
These innovations share one common feature: they are not minor tweaks made inside the comfort zone of compliance. Instead, they seek breakthroughs at the boundaries of regulation, walking the tightrope between compliance and innovation. This is the real embodiment of the crypto spirit.
As a leading platform in the industry, if an exchange chooses to stand still and abandon the soul of crypto innovation for the sake of compliance, it is fundamentally irresponsible to the industry ecosystem and to users’ right to choose.
Star Xu is turning CEXs backward into mediocre traditional Web2 brokerages, turning cryptocurrency exchanges into stock brokers wearing crypto clothing.
3. The Responsibility of a Leader: Balancing Innovation and Safety
Binance is the industry leader not because of how many regulatory licenses it has obtained, but because while actively embracing regulation, it has still held on to the core spirit of crypto.
Look at the data. According to CoinGlass’s cryptocurrency market share report for the first quarter of 2026, Binance’s derivatives trading volume reached approximately $4.9 trillion, accounting for 34.9% of the top ten exchanges. Its average daily open interest was around $23.9 billion, accounting for 29.9%. Its user asset reserves stood at about $152.9 billion, accounting for 73.5% of major centralized exchanges. Binance’s derivatives trading volume was about 2.2 times that of OKX, while its user asset scale was about 9.6 times that of OKX.
What message do these numbers send?
The market votes with its feet.
Users place their assets on Binance not because Binance’s compliance certificates look better than others’, but because Binance offers products, liquidity, and innovation opportunities that others cannot provide.
Now look at Binance’s compliance investment. By the end of 2025, Binance’s global compliance team had reached approximately 1,500 people, accounting for roughly one quarter of the company’s global workforce, with annual compliance spending of about $300 million. Binance’s head of Europe and the UK also stated that the company had hired around 1,500 compliance personnel. In its MiCA statement, Binance also emphasized that over the past two years, it had hired more than 1,500 compliance personnel and strengthened internal monitoring.
This is not avoiding regulation. This is building compliance capability with real money.
Binance’s strategy has never been to reject compliance. Rather, it is to avoid giving up the possibility of innovation while operating under a compliance framework.
When Binance warned during the MiCA application process that reduced competition could lead to lower liquidity in the EU, that was not a threat. It was a statement of fact. A market that loses its innovative vitality will ultimately hurt all users.
Binance also stated that Europe remains a key part of its long-term strategy, and that regulatory clarity is essential for helping users gain better information, making it easier for businesses to participate, and promoting innovation.
4. Innovation Is Not “Regulatory Arbitrage”; It Is the Reason This Industry Exists
Star Xu describes Binance’s competitive advantages as “regulatory arbitrage.” This attribution contains a fundamental logical error: it confuses innovation with regulatory arbitrage.
What is regulatory arbitrage? It is using differences in regulatory systems across jurisdictions to gain an improper advantage.
But what is Binance doing?
It is launching Pre-IPO perpetual contracts, tokenized securities, and Web3 APIs across global markets. These product innovations have nothing to do with “regulatory arbitrage.” They are direct responses to user demand.
When discussing Pre-IPO perpetual contracts, Binance’s head of spot and derivatives business said that the momentum seen in the first few days after launching this category was a strong signal that users wanted new ways to gain exposure to major market narratives through crypto-native products.
Users want something, and Binance builds it.
Isn’t that the most basic business logic?
Pre-IPO perpetual contract trading volume reached around $12 billion in June 2026, growing 6,000 times from March to June. This number says everything: market demand for innovative products is real and enormous.
If every exchange were like OKX and Star Xu, pursuing compliance for compliance’s sake, these demands would never be met, and these innovations would never happen.
The meaning of the cryptocurrency industry has never been to become a compliant copy of traditional finance. If cryptocurrency exchanges become as conservative and boring as traditional banks, then what is the purpose of this industry’s existence?
Compliance is a boundary, but it should never become the ceiling of innovation.
5. Honor Does Not Come From Certificates; Users Need Platforms, Not Awards
What do users truly need?
Users need a platform that can create wealth effects and technological innovation, not a luxury version of a traditional bank wearing a compliance coat.
Users need a place where they can trade 24/7, access frontier assets, and use innovative financial tools. They do not need an institution that has nothing to say beyond “I am safe,” like OKX.
Binance’s 43rd Proof of Reserves report showed that, as of June 1, 2026, users held approximately 630,000 BTC on the platform, up 4.26% from May 1. ETH holdings stood at around 4.14 million, up 10.17%. User funds continued flowing into Binance. This is not because Binance’s compliance certificates look pretty, but because users trust that this platform can provide value.
The CoinGlass report also showed that in terms of user asset deposits, after Binance, only OKX maintained a level above $10 billion, while Gate, Bitget, and Bybit were all in the $5 billion to $7 billion range. Binance’s user asset scale was about 9.6 times that of OKX. This gap in scale cannot be bridged by Star Xu’s words, nor by a few regulatory licenses.
At the beginning of 2026, Star Xu proposed shifting “from the gambling table to an asset allocation terminal” and “from short-term trading volume to long-term trust accumulation.” Whether he has achieved that is another matter. The shift itself is not necessarily wrong. The problem is this: when an exchange treats compliance as the endpoint rather than the starting point, packages conservatism as prudence, and beautifies a lack of innovation as responsibility, it is in fact abandoning its mission as a core participant in the crypto industry.
The cryptocurrency industry has only existed for a little over a decade. The reason it grew from a concept discussed in geek forums into a trillion-dollar asset class was not the accumulation of compliance certificates described by Star Xu. It was the courage of generation after generation of builders who continued to break through and innovate in regulatory gray zones.
Binance’s phased MiCA challenge in 2026 is real. But Binance’s choice is equally clear: it will not leave Europe and will continue seeking other paths to obtain operational authorization.
At the same time, Binance’s product innovation has never stopped — Pre-IPO contracts, bStocks, Web3 API, Binance Alpha. Every product proves to the industry that compliance and innovation can coexist. The key question is whether a platform has the capability and willingness to do both.
Honor does not appear out of thin air because of a certificate. Mediocrity does not become greatness because of a certificate either.
Truly great platforms are never those that, like Star Xu, constantly hang compliance on their lips as a medal. They are platforms that can keep creating value and keep pushing the industry forward within the boundaries of compliance.
Binance has done this.
And those competitors that treat compliance as a substitute for innovation will eventually be proven wrong by the market. Certificates can be bought, but innovation cannot. Compliance can be performed, but user trust cannot be faked.
