Binance cuts direct exposure to illicit crypto funds by 96% since 2023

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, reported a major reduction in its direct exposure to illicit crypto activity even as global trading volumes and user engagement surged last year.

In its “State of the Blockchain 2025” report, the exchange stated that it had reduced its direct exposure to major categories of illicit funds by 96% since 2023. Currently, its compliance and related teams make up nearly a quarter of its total workforce.

Beyond compliance, Binance expanded into key markets, achieving $34 trillion in annual trading volume, and became the first global crypto platform fully authorized under the Abu Dhabi Global Market’s rules.

The numbers come as crypto crime spiked in 2025 amid surging nation-state activity and sanctions evasion, according to new data released by Chainalysis. Over the year, illicit cryptocurrency addresses received at least $154 billion, representing a 162% year-on-year increase and the highest total ever recorded. Absent the expansion of sanctioned entity activities, 2025 would still have surpassed previous records, as increases were seen across nearly all major illicit categories.

Binance helped authorities seize approximately $131 million in 2025

In 2025, Binance assisted authorities in recovering approximately $131 million tied to illicit activity and processed over 71,000 formal requests. The platform also offered more than 160 training sessions to equip law enforcement with the skills to tackle illicit activity in digital assets.

Between early 2023 and mid-2025, the exchange significantly reduced its direct exposure to illicit activity, while still processing volumes comparable to those of the combined six other top exchanges. Essentially, more of what Binance processed was legitimate, and only a few transactions were connected to illicit activity.

Last year, the exchange’s risk and control systems blocked $6.69 billion in potential scam losses for 5.4 million users, and helped more than 50,000 recover $11.7 million. SB Seker, Head of APAC at Binance, commented on their efforts, “The focus in 2025 was on measurable outcomes, including preventing $6.69 billion in potential fraud, strengthening market integrity, and supporting greater institutional participation.”

The exchange also adopted more phishing simulations in 2025, successfully lowering its phishing failure rate from 3.2% to 0.4%.

Moreover, its compliance team streamlined its Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD) process in a 28-day sprint, reducing the number of steps from 14 to 4, cutting RFIs by over 60%, and increasing both first-time pass rates and overall approvals by nearly 50%.

Binance has over 300 million users globally

Last year, the platform recorded $7.1 trillion in spot trading, representing an 18% increase in daily average volumes, and more than 300 million users worldwide, which pushed the all-time trading volume to $145 trillion. The exchange’s spot markets comprise 490 coins and 1,889 trading pairs, while futures trading encompasses 584 coins. One of its features, Smart Money, also attracted 1.2 million users, and demo trading tools reached 300,000 users.

Institutional activity also increased, with the platform posting a 21% rise in institutional volumes and a 210% surge in over-the-counter fiat trading, as tokenized funds gained wider use as collateral.

Binance also reported wider adoption, with P2P and fiat volumes up 38%. Binance Pay users increased by 30%, with more than 20 million merchants accepting cryptocurrency, and $1.2 billion distributed via Binance Earn. With over $1 trillion in volume, Binance Alpha 2.0 attracted 17 million users and shut down 270,000 scam accounts during airdrop events.

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