Binance Reports 97% Reduction in Sanctions-Related Exposure Since Early 2024
The cryptocurrency exchange stands by its compliance measures, reporting a 97% decrease in exposure to sanctioned entities while refuting claims it terminated investigators over Iran-related discoveries.
The cryptocurrency trading platform Binance has announced that it has "significantly reduced exposure" to entities under sanctions and jurisdictions considered high-risk, with particular emphasis on decreased exposure to Iran beginning in January 2024.
Through a Monday blog post bearing the title "Setting the record straight," Binance disclosed that its exposure related to sanctions as a proportion of overall exchange trading volume has dropped by approximately 97% during this period, currently standing at roughly 0.009%.
This statement arrives following a Fortune article published on Feb. 13 that referenced unnamed sources making claims that Binance had terminated the employment of no fewer than five investigators who had allegedly discovered evidence indicating violations of Iranian sanctions.
The allegations were disputed by Binance on Feb. 15, with the company declaring that the reporting was "categorically false." "No investigator was dismissed for raising compliance concerns or for reporting potential sanctions issues," the company stated at the time.
Within its latest blog post, Binance explained that in reality, certain compliance staff members left the organization following an internal examination that identified "breaches of company data-protection and confidentiality guidelines."
Additionally, Binance revealed that throughout the period spanning January 2024 to January 2026, the company decreased its direct exposure to the four leading Iranian exchanges by over 97%, reducing the amount from $4.19 million down to $110,000.
Recent reporting on Binance's sanctions compliance relies on incomplete and mischaracterized accounts that do not reflect all of the facts and the full investigative record.
The cryptocurrency exchange platform also seized the moment to reinforce its commitment to compliance initiatives, revealing that roughly 25% of its worldwide workforce is "dedicated to compliance functions" and the company has put forth "hundreds of millions of US dollars" into its compliance infrastructure.
The exchange had previously found itself under scrutiny in 2022 after a comparable Reuters investigation claimed that users from Iran kept conducting trades on the platform even after the organization had placed the nation on its blacklist.