Binance

The world's largest crypto exchange by volume, founded in Shanghai in 2017 and famously without a headquarters.

An exchange that ran for years without a real anti-money-laundering programme, let US users trade and processed transactions for sanctioned parties; a compliance case, not a theft.

Changpeng Zhao launched Binance in July 2017 after an ICO in Shanghai and, by moving from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, made it the world's largest crypto exchange within a year. US prosecutors and regulators found it had knowingly served US customers and sanctioned users without meaningful anti-money-laundering controls. On 21 November 2023 Binance pleaded guilty and agreed to a $4.3 billion resolution, the largest corporate penalty in a US crypto case; Zhao pleaded guilty personally, stepped down and served four months. The exchange kept operating under a monitor, and the SEC dropped its own case in May 2025.

21 November 2023: Binance pleaded guilty to Bank Secrecy Act, sanctions and money-transmitting violations and agreed to pay $4.3B (DOJ criminal penalty and forfeiture, FinCEN $3.4B and OFAC $968M, largely credited) with a 3–5 year compliance monitor; CFTC settlement $2.7B included in the total. CZ paid a $50M fine and served 4 months. The SEC's June 2023 lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice on 29 May 2025.