On 28 February 2024, two Binance executives, Nadeem Anjarwalla and Tigran Gambaryan, were detained by Nigeria’s government on allegations of illegal operations and forex manipulation. It issued a declaration stating that Binance Nigeria Limited, a subsidiary of Binance, was operating unlawfully in the country. 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 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.
Japan
The New York Department of Financial Services issued an order Binance cryptocurrency exchange to Paxos to stop minting new BUSD tokens in February 2023. 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.
2019: launch of stablecoin and security breach
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. 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 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.
Tokens
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. 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.
Nigeria
As a result, Binance has been banned from operating or ordered to cease operations in some countries, and has been issued fines. 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. Binance was founded in 2017 by Changpeng Zhao, a developer who had previously created high-frequency trading software.
BEP-20 Token Standard
- Binance was initially based in China, then moved to Japan shortly before the Chinese government restricted cryptocurrency companies.
- 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 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.
- This decision follows the SEC’s identification of Binance as operating without the necessary licensing for its investment and trading platform.
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.
- On 27 May 2022, Binance announced the registration of its legal entity in Italy and plans to open offices in the country.
- In May 2021, Bloomberg News reported that Binance was under investigation by the United States Department of Justice and Internal Revenue Service for money laundering and tax evasion.
- Binance accounts of Russian users were able to transfer to the new platform until March 2024.
- 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.
- In August 2018, Binance along with three other large exchanges raised $32 million to fund the stablecoin project Terra.
Despite Binance’s significant presence and activity in the Philippines, the SEC aims to provide investors with ample time to transition their investments to authorized platforms. SEC Chair Emilio Aquino emphasized the potential threat to investors’ security posed by continued access to Binance’s platform. In October 2024, Gambaryan was released after the Nigerian government dropped charges against him. The Nigerian government subsequently filed a criminal charge against Binance for tax evasion.
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.
Nigeria
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. On 21 November 2023, Binance pled guilty to federal charges, of money laundering, unlicensed money transmitting, and sanctions violations.
BEP-20 Token Standard
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. That same year, Binance shared client data, including names and addresses, with the Russian government.
Tokens
In May 2021, Bloomberg News reported that Binance was under investigation by the United States Department of Justice and Internal Revenue Service for money laundering and tax evasion. This decision follows the SEC’s identification of Binance as operating without the necessary licensing for its investment and trading platform. Amid regulatory issues in Nigeria, Binance disabled its Naira services on 8 March 2024. In June 2023, Binance announced that it was leaving the Netherlands after failing to obtain regulatory approval. In April 2022, the Dutch central bank announced a €3.3m fine for Binance due to offering services within the Netherlands without being registered in the country. 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 May 2021, it was reported that Binance was under investigation by both the Internal Revenue Service and the United States Department of Justice on allegations of money laundering and tax offenses. On 21 February 2020, the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) issued a public statement responding to media reports referring to Binance as a Malta-based cryptocurrency company. 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.
2019: launch of stablecoin and security breach
The acquisition allowed Binance to re-enter the Japanese cryptocurrency market. Binance backed out of the deal the next day citing concerns about FTX’s business practices and investigations by US financial regulators. On 8 November 2022, Binance offered to buy rival cryptocurrency exchange FTX’s non-US operations (FTX.com) to help cover the latter’s liquidity crunch. In September 2023, Binance announced it was leaving Russia and selling its business to the CommEX platform, which had been launched the previous week.
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.
In a formal statement issued on September 1, 2023, Binance announced it would discontinue support for BUSD. On March 12, 2025, it was announced that the Abu Dhabi government-backed investment fund MGX Fund Management Limited had made a minority $2 billion investment in Binance. Other defendants include former White House communications officer Anthony Scaramucci, digital-asset exchange Crypto.com and political groups such as the Mark Zuckerberg-founded FWD.US.
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. 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.
Months later, a similar memorandum was signed with the Malta Stock Exchange to develop a platform for trading security 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. Binance has been the subject of lawsuits and challenges from regulatory authorities throughout its history, in particular over its involvement in money laundering.
