Each asset holds a value, often priced in U.S. dollars, which leads to another use case: trading and investing. Aside from stablecoins — which seek to stabilize the instability of cryptocurrencies by pegging an asset to something else, such as the U.S. dollar — most cryptocurrencies constantly fluctuate in price. You can trade between cryptocurrencies and national currencies (called fiat currencies) on exchanges, depending on the trading pairs available on the platform of choice.
Despite the massive swing in value on the Binance US exchange, Bitcoin’s value on other exchanges remained stable. There has been speculation on the exact cause of the spike, though Binance offered a short statement to Bloomberg explaining that one of its institutional traders was responsible.

Binance.US was founded in 2019 in response to regulations that impacted Binance’s business in the United States. U.S. regulators believed some of the crypto assets that Binance’s trading platform allowed a user to trade were essentially securities. A security is a category of financial products which includes stocks, bonds, and specialized derivatives like futures. Trading in securities in the United States requires extensive licensing. Rather than change its main exchange to suit U.S. regulations, Binance instead created a separate exchange for U.S. customers, called Binance.US.
Research shows the US taking the top spot for global mining following a crackdown in China.