Binance is a centralized cryptocurrency exchange. Changpeng Zhao and Yi He founded it in July 2017, and it grew into the largest crypto exchange by daily trading volume. The platform lets users buy, sell, and hold a wide range of digital assets. Over time it added products beyond spot trading, including derivatives, staking, and its own BNB Chain.
Binance has no official company headquarters. It first operated out of China, then moved to Japan, and later relocated parts of its business to Malta, but it has not fixed its corporate seat to a single jurisdiction the way most large exchanges do. That structure has been a recurring point of friction with regulators, who have argued it makes oversight harder. The company is privately held.
As a centralized exchange, Binance is custodial: when you hold assets in a Binance account, the company controls the private keys, and you rely on it to safeguard and return your funds. Users who want sole control of their keys move assets to a self-custody wallet after buying.
Binance is best known for its scale and the breadth of its product range. For much of its history it has listed more tokens and supported more trading pairs than most rivals, and it built a large following among active traders. The BNB token, which the exchange issued, pays trading costs at a discount and underpins the BNB Chain network.
The company has a documented regulatory and legal history. On 21 November 2023, Binance pleaded guilty to violating United States anti-money-laundering rules and paid a $4.3 billion fine, one of the largest corporate penalties of its kind. Earlier, in June 2021, the United Kingdom's Financial Conduct Authority ordered Binance to stop all regulated activity in the country. In June 2023, Belgium's Financial Services and Markets Authority told the firm to cease offering virtual-currency services there. In May 2024, Canada's financial-intelligence agency, FINTRAC, imposed a fine on Binance for money-laundering compliance failures. Also in 2024, two Binance executives were detained in Nigeria, and the company disabled its Nigerian naira services. Rules and available services differ by country.
Anyone weighing Binance should check what is offered in their own jurisdiction, since access and product availability vary. Fees also vary by account tier and product, so check the current schedule before trading.