Consider how Cryptsy (a now defunct exchange) caused a severe blow to the crypto market prices as it was one of the biggest exchanges in the world. Just like it happened with Cryptsy, it could happen with Binance at some point in the future. I believe regulators should step in to help prevent Binance from becoming a monopoly. Only then, there will be healthy competition which results in greater decentralization in the long run. It looks like the merger won't happen anytime soon (Binance backed down after it saw FTX's books), so we should have nothing to worry about. Just my thoughts
I agree. I remember people trusting Cryptsy and Mintpal too (currently both of their ceos are indicted). But markets weren't really even regulated. Whales played pump and dumps and exchanges didn't require KYCs and for some reason Bittrex didn't seem that legit at the time when it came as a rival.
When Binance came, regulators were just catching up. And newbie investors didn't have the trauma of big CEXes exit scamming, failing or getting hacked. People who came before 2017 knew that anything can happen and tried to warn everyone with the facts like "not your keys, not your coins".
I still think that the whole game has changed a lot. Regulators are watching things more closely and CEXes are working with them. FATF laws are coming and soon Regulated DeFi will be a thing and losses by theft can be covered by insurances. Security now is way more sophisticated and normies can trust security of Binance way more they can trust their own tech savviness to keep hackers away.
Only thing that can seriously mess things up now are unseen disasters we haven't thought about, or huge lawsuits and stuff that happened to FTX and even then you have to fear more market volatility then some exchange stealing your coins.