Binance security record

Failed to obtain a MiCA licence and stopped serving EU clients

Binance withdrew its licence application from Greece's regulator ahead of the 30 June 2026 deadline for authorisation under the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, and told EU users it would stop providing crypto asset services across EU markets from 1 July 2026. It said customer assets remain safe and secure and accessible at all times, and that it intends to seek licensing through another member state. If you are in the EU, confirm Binance can legally serve you before opening an account.

Euronews, 25 June 2026

Abu Dhabi regulator licensed the main Binance.com platform

ADGM's Financial Services Regulatory Authority approved three Binance entities covering the global platform: Nest Services Limited as a recognised investment exchange permitted to operate a multilateral trading facility for spot and derivatives trading, Nest Clearing and Custody Limited as a recognised clearing house for clearing, settlement, custody and CSD services, and BCI Limited as a broker dealer covering OTC and conversion business. Regulated activities were set to begin on 5 January 2026.

ADGM announcement, 8 December 2025

Pricing failure forced liquidations, 283 million dollars repaid

During the market crash of 10 October 2025, three assets widely used as collateral came adrift from their benchmarks on Binance: Ethena's USDe, the BNSOL staked Solana token and Binance's own wrapped staked ether, wBETH. Positions backed by them were liquidated between roughly 8:50pm and 10:00pm UTC. Binance attributed the falls to a display error and to overall market conditions, said its core trading systems stayed operational throughout, and reimbursed about 283 million dollars to affected margin, futures and loan users by 13 October 2025.

Yahoo Finance, 13 October 2025

SEC dropped its 2023 lawsuit against Binance and its founder

The SEC sued Binance, Binance.US and Changpeng Zhao in 2023, alleging they illegally served high value US customers, commingled and diverted customer funds and offered unregistered securities. The case was dismissed on 29 May 2025 after nearly two years, part of a broader reversal of crypto enforcement under SEC chair Paul Atkins. It ended the last major US securities action against the exchange.

Banking Dive, 30 May 2025

Nigeria held a Binance compliance executive for eight months

Tigran Gambaryan, Binance's head of financial crime compliance, was detained in Nigeria from February 2024 on money laundering and tax evasion charges and held at Kuje prison outside Abuja, where he contracted malaria and suffered a herniated disc. A Nigerian court dropped the charges on 23 October 2024 on humanitarian grounds so he could seek medical treatment abroad. Nadeem Anjarwalla, the Binance regional manager detained with him, escaped and fled the country after about a month. Nigerian officials said they would continue to pursue a tax evasion case against Binance itself.

The Record, 23 October 2024

Founder Changpeng Zhao sentenced to four months in prison

US District Judge Richard Jones in Seattle sentenced Zhao to four months for failing to take required anti money laundering measures at Binance. Prosecutors had sought three years, more than double the guideline range. Zhao was also fined 50 million dollars.

Al Jazeera, 30 April 2024

Guilty plea and a 4.3 billion dollar US resolution over AML and sanctions

Binance pleaded guilty to conspiring to breach the Bank Secrecy Act, running an unlicensed money transmitting business and violating US sanctions law, and agreed to pay more than 4.3 billion dollars. The CFTC order alone required 1.35 billion dollars in disgorgement and a 1.35 billion dollar civil penalty from Binance, plus 150 million dollars from founder Changpeng Zhao, finding the exchange operated an unregistered derivatives venue for US customers, failed to apply know your customer controls and intentionally undermined the safeguards meant to keep those customers out. The Justice Department, FinCEN and OFAC brought parallel actions over money laundering, sanctions and Bank Secrecy Act breaches, making up the balance of the total. Zhao resigned as CEO. This was a criminal guilty plea, not a civil settlement.

CFTC press release 8825-23

Auditor Mazars quit proof of reserves work and pulled the report

Mazars had certified that on 22 November 2022 Binance held enough bitcoin and wrapped bitcoin to cover all user balances on the exchange. Weeks later it suspended proof of reserves work for crypto clients and deleted the website hosting the reports. The attestation covered bitcoin only and did not establish whether customer assets were segregated from Binance's own balance sheet. Binance now self publishes reserve reports using Merkle tree and zk-SNARK verification, with no independent auditor named on them.

TechCrunch, 16 December 2022

UK regulator barred Binance Markets Limited from regulated activity

The FCA imposed requirements on Binance Markets Limited on 25 June 2021 and warned consumers the next day that the firm was not permitted to undertake any regulated activity in the UK, and that no other entity in the Binance Group held any form of UK authorisation, registration or licence. The FCA says the firm complied with all aspects of the requirements. Binance Markets Limited's permissions were cancelled on 30 May 2023 and it is no longer authorised by the FCA.

FCA consumer warning

Hackers took 7,000 BTC from a hot wallet, repaid in full

Attackers combined phishing and malware to harvest user API keys and 2FA codes, then drained about 7,000 BTC, worth roughly 40.8 million dollars, from a hot wallet holding around 2 percent of the exchange's total holdings. Binance covered the entire loss from its Secure Asset Fund for Users, so no customer lost money. Deposits and withdrawals were suspended while the wallets were rebuilt.

Finance Magnates, 8 May 2019