Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, reported a 97% reduction in its exposure to sanctioned entities since January 2024, according to a blog post published Monday. The announcement comes amid scrutiny following a Fortune report alleging the dismissal of compliance investigators who raised concerns about potential sanctions violations involving Iran.
The exchange stated that its sanctions-related risk, as a percentage of total trading volume, has decreased from 0.284% in January 2024 to 0.009% as of July 2025. Direct engagement with four major Iranian cryptocurrency exchanges has fallen by 97.3% over the same period, from $4.19 million to approximately $110,000, Binance claims. This performance, the company asserts, surpasses that of ten other large global exchanges in mitigating risk.
The Fortune report, published February 13th, cited anonymous sources claiming Binance had terminated at least five investigators who had uncovered evidence of potential breaches of sanctions related to Iran. Binance refuted these claims on February 15th, stating that no investigators were dismissed for raising compliance concerns. The company explained that some compliance staff departures occurred following an internal review that revealed violations of the company’s data privacy and confidentiality policies.
Binance’s latest statement details its compliance efforts, describing its program as “best-in-class” and continuously improving. The exchange reported handling over 71,000 requests from authorities and supporting more than $131 million in asset seizures throughout 2025 alone.
The developments occur as Binance operates under the terms of a settlement with U.S. Authorities, reached after the exchange pleaded guilty to violating anti-money laundering and sanctions regulations and agreed to pay $4.3 billion in penalties.
Binance has disputed the accuracy of the recent reporting regarding its sanctions compliance. According to the exchange, the entities mentioned in the Fortune report underwent structured internal reviews which confirmed they were not on sanctions lists at the time of their platform usage and did not trigger alerts from standard industry monitoring tools. Binance stated it activated its compliance protocols and took appropriate action upon discovering new information.
Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao addressed the allegations on social media, stating, “You can put a negative narrative on anything by talking to an ‘anonymous source’ who is ‘unhappy’ or paid to FUD.”
In January, blockchain analytics firm Elliptic reported that wallets linked to the Central Bank of Iran had accumulated over $500 million in Tether’s USDT stablecoin, indicating a growing reliance on stablecoins to circumvent banking restrictions. Binance did not directly address this finding in its recent statement.
