During the event dedicated to the seventh anniversary of Binance that took place a few days ago in Rimini, The Cryptonomist had the pleasure of interviewing Lorenzo Capone, Head of marketing and BD for Italy and Gianluigi Guida, CEO of Binance Italy.
Summary
How did your experience in Binance begin?
Gianluigi: In my case, it started in 2021, so almost three years ago, September 2021, I joined Binance initially as Senior legal counsel, I am a lawyer, perhaps not many people know that. After that, we established the company in March 2022, I obtained the VASP registration in May 2022 and then the management, at that time, and our former CEO and founder CZ, asked me to take the lead of Italy, so here I am.
Lorenzo: mine is also very similar to Gianluigi’s. I also entered in 2021, in July, after a period between personal startup, therefore entrepreneurial background, and in consulting. I worked for Deloitte for six months in the banking auditing sector and from there I became even more passionate about the world of Bitcoin and decided that this would be my sector. As soon as the opportunity came out on LinkedIn as Growth Manager of Italian marketing, I understood that it was the right moment to apply and enter this wonderful sector, in this incredible company.
Since Binance opened in Italy, what have been, in your opinion, the events that have most characterized the arrival of Binance Italy or, in general, cryptocurrencies in Italy?
Gianluigi: It is an excellent question. As for Binance, certainly, and Binance Italy we are talking about, the establishment of the company was a fundamental moment. And subsequently, of course, the registration in the virtual asset service provider, of the register of operators in Italian virtual currency was a fundamental moment to be able to offer products and services in Italy while respecting the rules. More recently, I believe that an important moment was when we reached more than one billion crypto assets in custody. Certainly, it was a very significant moment.
Lorenzo, do you want to add something?
Absolutely yes, I would probably tell you more on the community side. The most beautiful milestone that I feel like telling you about is the one you see around you today, that is the community, what we have managed to build together. So a group of friends, on the KOL side, as they say in technical jargon, and also a very close-knit community, as you can see, that is here for a single purpose, which is to bring this sector to the next level, this is the community side. Probably on our side, important local milestones, I feel like telling you about the partnership with Learn and with Treccani Futura, with whom we have started information and dissemination activities on blockchain and the benefits it brings as a technology.
With Learn we gave away three months of free platform access, it was a very interesting partnership that the community loved a lot, because it is a platform where you can get comprehensive training on the digital world of entrepreneurship and marketing. In short, there are many things to learn and we had the privilege of being able to give away three months of this know-how to our community, completely free. And with Treccani, on the other hand, we did a more physical journey, so we went to universities and talked about the blockchain in four Italian universities from the south to the north of Italy.
Where do you see Binance and the cryptocurrency sector in the next five years? Given what we have achieved today, what do we expect for the future?
Gianluigi: five years in this sector probably equate to 15 years in a traditional sector, so it is very difficult. You know, we at Binance also have a saying that one year at Binance is equivalent to three years in a traditional company, so this perhaps applies to the crypto sector in general, so it is objectively difficult.
What we are witnessing is a continuous evolution. Every day new uses are discovered, technology evolves, there are many new projects, so we will certainly see beautiful and interesting things. We await the future and obviously look at it with curiosity and enthusiasm, because I truly believe that the potential of this technology has not yet been fully perceived and there is still work to be done, but I am quite positive.
Lorenzo: I am also very positive on the community side and the focus, in my opinion, even in the five years that seem like 15 in other sectors, will always be to have an almost obsessive attention towards the user and towards the value. In the end, it is a company.
What we often miss in this sector, which is what we need to pay attention to, is the value and the problems we solve for people, essentially. So a service, a product that people actually use. And this is often forgotten because there is a tendency to pay a bit more attention to the speculative aspect, to the price aspect.
The thing we are focused on is almost an attention to detail regarding both the product itself, therefore keeping up with innovation which, as you know very well, in our sector changes really, is different from one day to the next. What works today can be obsolete the day after or a few weeks later, so you have to be very attentive to trends, know how to integrate them into your system with care, therefore with very important due diligence, and this is where Binance is the absolute leader, and at the same time always being close to the community at any moment. That makes the difference and is what has allowed this company to become number one within six months.
Coinbase, Ton, Solana. Many competitors are emerging, now we have heard Bybit becoming the second exchange, even though you remain the first. How do you intend to confront and win the challenge against the innovation that your competitors bring?
Gianluigi: First of all, the fact that other operators innovate and therefore develop products, new uses, create new services, is absolutely positive for the entire sector, because if there is innovation it is positive for the whole sector. As for Binance, we will remain focused on users, as Lore also mentioned, continuing to guarantee our products, therefore security, reliability, transparency, all in compliance with the rules, exactly those you mentioned earlier.
Today fortunately the legal framework is a bit clearer compared to the past and this helps operators also in the calculation of risks and which risks can be faced, as business I mean. And it is evolving, even the Italian institutions have realized that this technology is here to stay, as they say, and therefore they are dedicating resources and attention. And we have seen it, for example, with the regulation, first of all the VASP regulation, originally, then with the tax regulation and today with the legislative decree implementing MiCA, the European Regulation. So there is certainly a lot of attention. It is important for Binance to also have clear perimeters within which to operate. Then it is important that the whole sector evolves, there is no doubt about this.
Lorenzo: Yes, absolutely, regarding the operators you mentioned, they are probably cannibalizing the attention in this first semester, Q1 and Q2 the main protagonists have been Ton and Solana. On our side at Binance, what we do is we watch these trends very closely. We are very attentive to these trends and we try to integrate new mechanisms within our ecosystem when it makes sense and can bring value.
The main objective is to create the best and most efficient user experience possible. Also including products with very important due diligence behind them, as Gianluigi mentioned.
One last direct question instead towards the community. What is the message that today, for the 7th anniversary of Binance, you want to send to the Italian crypto community and to your users?


Gianluigi: Certainly to convey gratitude towards our users. They give us a lot of support and transmit great enthusiasm to us, and this pushes us every day to do better and more for them. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We have come a long way and we will go much further together.
Lorenzo: Absolutely agree, because if this company has reached even the local level where it is now with these numbers, both quantitative and qualitative for the team that we have managed to create with Gigi since 2022, it is mainly due to the users who continue to stay close to us and give us important feedback. This is the message, to never be afraid of feedback because they are always taken into consideration and implemented when they bring an improvement. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts, we are here to stay like the whole sector and we will continue to deliberate as they say in technical jargon.
