In January 2019, Binance announced that it had partnered with Israel-based payment processor Simplex to enable some cryptocurrencies to be purchased with debit and credit cards. This was intended to facilitate cryptocurrency transactions with less volatility. In August 2018, Binance along with three other large exchanges raised $32 million to fund the stablecoin project Terra.
BEP-20 Token Standard
In June, Reuters found that Binance had acted as a conduit for the laundering of at least $2.35 billion from hacks, $780 million laundered from the Russian darknet market Hydra, and €800 million from investment scams. In March 2022, amidst the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Zhao refused to ban users from Russia, citing « financial freedom ». In September 2019, the exchange began offering perpetual futures contracts, allowing leverage as high as 125 times the value of the contracts. Later in 2023, Forbes leaked a document allegedly from Binance titled « TaiChi » that proposed this regulatory solution to reduce US regulatory risk.
- Binance has been the subject of lawsuits and challenges from regulatory authorities throughout its history, in particular over its involvement in money laundering.
- The company was founded in 2017 in China but moved its servers and headquarters out of the country in advance of the Chinese government’s ban on cryptocurrency trading in September 2017.
- In May 2022, Binance gained regulatory approval in France, allowing the company to provide digital asset services in the country.
- According to data from blockchain analytics company Arkham Intelligence, Binance is the largest crypto-holding entity in the world with over $200 billion in digital assets.
In response to this report, Binance fired the investigators and retained DWF Labs as a client, saying that the self trading could have been accidental and that the internal team collaborated too closely with one of DWF’s competitors. The investigation also found examples of DWF Labs selling tokens its founder had promoted causing a crash in those token’s price, which is consistent with a pump and dump scheme, and is against Binance’s terms of service. On 21 November 2023, a US judge convicted Binance on multiple charges—including violations of the Bank Secrecy Act, money laundering schemes, unlicensed money transmitting, and sanctions violations. In June 2023, Binance had 790 million US dollars in outflows after the SEC announced its lawsuit and Forbes reported that the company had 120 million users globally. Following the investment, the company announced the creation of a team to work on how blockchain and cryptocurrencies could be helpful to Twitter. On 13 June 2022, Binance announced that for an unspecified period of time users would not be unable to withdraw their funds held in bitcoin, as the value of cryptocurrencies suffered serious declines.
Tokens
On 6 April 2023, the Australian Securities & Investments Commission cancelled the Australian financial services licence held by Oztures Trading Pty Ltd trading as Binance Australia Derivatives (Binance). According to a 2024 report in The Wall Street Journal covering 2023, Binance fired several members of its internal investigation team who were tasked with investigating market manipulation such as pump and dump schemes and wash trading. In 2019, the company announced Binance Jersey, a Jersey-based exchange which offers fiat-to-cryptocurrency pairs, including the Euro and the British pound. In January 2018 it was the largest cryptocurrency exchange with a market capitalization of $1.3 billion, a title it had retained as late as April 2021, despite competition from Coinbase, among others. The company was founded in 2017 in China but moved its servers and headquarters out of the country in advance of the Chinese government’s ban on cryptocurrency trading in September 2017. He also worked at OKCoin as CTO for less than a year, a platform for spot trading between fiat and digital assets.
Binance Holdings Ltd., branded Binance, is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in terms of daily trading volume of cryptocurrencies. On 12 September 2023, Binance.US announced the resignation of CEO Brian Shroder and a reduction of the exchange’s workforce by around 100 positions, roughly one-third of its total staff. Arkham Intelligence provided data in January 2023 that identified “an alleged nexus of money laundering” from a much smaller exchange called Bitzlato through intermediate wallets of Binance.
The fine was issued to the company after an official warning was issued to the company during August 2021. In June 2024, Binance was imposed with a fine of US$2.25 million by the Financial Intelligence Unit, for operating in India in violation of local anti-money laundering regulations. In April 2021, the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority in Germany warned that the company risked fines for not releasing an investor prospectus for the stock tokens it has issued.
Japan
In December 2022, Binance’s American entity Binance.US announced that it would acquire Voyager Digital’s assets in a $1.02 billion deal. In response, Binance and other investors opened Binance.US, a separate exchange designed to comply with all applicable US federal laws. In January 2021, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority began requiring firms dealing with cryptoassets to register in order to comply with anti-money laundering rules. Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission filed a criminal complaint against Binance on 2 July 2021, « for commission of offence under the Emergency Decree on Digital Asset Business B.E. 2561 (2018) ». Additionally, the SEC has collaborated with major tech companies like Google and Meta to halt Binance’s digital advertising efforts targeting Filipino users, although the Binance app remains available for download on mainstream app stores.
2019: launch of stablecoin and security breach
On 27 May 2022, Binance announced the registration of its legal entity in Italy and plans to open offices in the country. Binance accounts of Russian users were able to transfer to the new platform until March 2024. In March 2023, the exchange banned Russian residents from buying euros and dollars through its p2p service.
In July 2018, Binance acquired Trust Wallet, a decentralized cryptocurrency wallet for an undisclosed sum composed of a mixture of cash, Binance stock, and BNB tokens. In April 2018, Binance signed a memorandum of understanding with the government of Bermuda. In March 2018, Binance announced its intentions to open an office in Malta after stricter regulations in Japan and China. In 2013, he joined Blockchain.info as the third member of the cryptocurrency wallet’s team. CEO Changpeng Zhao founded Fusion Systems in 2005 in Shanghai; the company built high-frequency trading systems for stockbrokers.
Investigative journalists have uncovered how Binance continues to profit from money laundering for organized crime groups. In October 2025, President Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao who had been convicted for enabling money laundering on Binance. In November 2023, the company pleaded guilty in a US federal court to money laundering, unlicensed money transmitting, and sanctions violations.
Nigeria
In 2022, BUSD became the third largest stablecoin by market capitalization, following Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC). Binance USD (BUSD) was a US dollar-pegged stablecoin issued by Paxos on the behalf of Binance. By 2021, BNB had the third highest market capitalization among cryptocurrencies. It was originally called Binance Coin when it was launched in July 2017, for users to pay fees on the company’s platform. According to a 2024 study by John Griffin, a finance professor at the University of Texas at Austin, Binance is the most popular exchange used in pig butchering scams.
BEP-20 Token Standard
- Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission filed a criminal complaint against Binance on 2 July 2021, « for commission of offence under the Emergency Decree on Digital Asset Business B.E. 2561 (2018) ».
- On June 23, 2023, Belgium’s Financial Services and Markets Authority ordered Binance to “cease, with immediate effect, offering or providing any and all” virtual currency services in the country.
- In April 2023, three unidentified trading firms cited as VIP clients of Binance were revealed to be Radix Trading, Jane Street Capital, and Tower Research Capital.
- In June, Reuters found that Binance had acted as a conduit for the laundering of at least $2.35 billion from hacks, $780 million laundered from the Russian darknet market Hydra, and €800 million from investment scams.
- In March 2023, the exchange banned Russian residents from buying euros and dollars through its p2p service.
- In 2022, BUSD became the third largest stablecoin by market capitalization, following Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC).
France is the first European country to give Binance regulatory approval. On 17 March 2022, Binance has confirmed in an undertaking to the Ontario Securities Commission that it would stop opening new accounts and halting trading in existing accounts for users in Ontario. The regulator said Binance had been offering such services “from countries that are not members of the European Economic Area.” On June 23, 2023, Belgium’s Financial Services and Markets Authority ordered Binance to “cease, with immediate effect, offering or providing any and all” virtual currency services in the country. On 18 May 2023, Binance Australia announced that it had lost access to Australia’s PayID payment system « due to a decision made by our third party payment service provider ». The New York Department of Financial Services issued an order to Paxos to stop minting new BUSD tokens in February 2023.
Tokens
Binance has been the subject of lawsuits and challenges from regulatory authorities throughout its history, in particular over its involvement in money laundering. Binance was initially based in China, then moved to Japan shortly before the Chinese government restricted cryptocurrency companies. In April 2024, Zhao was sentenced to four months in prison after pleading guilty to violating US money laundering laws.
In November 2019, Binance announced it was acquiring Indian bitcoin exchange WazirX, which became disputed in August 2022 when Binance founder Zhao claimed the deal was never signed. In June 2019, the company announced it would prohibit US passport holders as well as anyone residing in the US, and would set up a new entity binance.us to support those customers. Months later, a similar memorandum was signed with the Malta Stock Exchange to develop a platform for trading security Binance cryptocurrency exchange tokens. In August 2025, Wall Street Journal found that Binance was quietly administering a trading platform for the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial. In 2021, Binance was put under investigation by both the United States Department of Justice and Internal Revenue Service on allegations of money laundering and tax offenses.
In January 2025, French authorities opened a judicial investigation into Binance for potential involvement in money laundering, drug trafficking, and tax fraud within the European Union from 2019 to 2024. In June 2023, the Paris prosecutor’s office announced that Binance was under preliminary investigation for illegal canvassing of clients and money-laundering. In May 2024, FINTRAC announced that it had imposed a $4.32 million fine on Binance for violating Canadian money laundering and terrorist financing laws. In May 2023, Binance announced it would withdraw from the Canadian market due to the introduction of stricter rules in the country. In a formal statement issued on September 1, 2023, Binance announced it would discontinue support for BUSD.
On May 30, 2023, it was reported that the Ontario Securities Commission had issued an investigation order into whether Binance may have taken steps to circumvent Ontario securities law and compliance controls prior to its withdrawal from the Canadian market. In May 2023, Thailand’s Ministry of Finance issued a cryptocurrency exchange license to Gulf Binance, the joint venture of Binance and Gulf Innova, a subsidiary of Thai billionaire Sarath Ratanavadi’s Gulf Energy Development. In August 2022, India’s Enforcement Directorate froze the assets of WazirX, an exchange owned by Binance, as part of a money laundering investigation. In May 2022, Binance gained regulatory approval in Italy, allowing the company to provide digital asset services in the country. In May 2022, Binance gained regulatory approval in France, allowing the company to provide digital asset services in the country.
Binance was founded in 2017 by Changpeng Zhao, a developer who had previously created high-frequency trading software.