Binance Rejects Sanctions Evasion Claims, Reports 97% Drop

Analysis shows that sanctions-linked wallets have amassed large stablecoin balances, underscoring compliance challenges across the industry.

Binance has reported a reduction in its exposure to sanctioned entities, citing a 97% decline since January 2024.

The announcement follows allegations of sanctions violations and claims that researchers have been fired for raising compliance concerns.

Binance outperforms global competitors

Recent reports from Fortune claimed that several researchers were fired after noticing more than $1 billion in transactions linked to Iranian counterparties over 18 months, mainly involving Tether’s USDT on the Tron blockchain.

In addition to the dismissals of the investigators, the report indicated that at least four senior compliance officers have been fired or dismissed over the past three months.

Separately, the blockchain analysis platform Elliptic noted in January, wallets linked to the Central Bank of Iran emerged as having amassed more than $500 million in USDT, indicating an increasing reliance on stablecoins to circumvent banking restrictions.

In response, Binance outlined its compliance measures in a blog post: to describe its program as “best-in-class” and is continuously strengthened. Data shared by the exchange shows that sanctions exposure as a percentage of total exchange volume fell from 0.284% in January 2024 to 0.009% in July 2025, representing a decline of 96.8%.

Direct connection to the four largest Iranian cryptocurrency exchanges also fell 97.3% over the period, from $4.19 million to approximately $0.11 million, surpassing ten major global exchange peers in terms of risk reduction. In 2025 alone, the company says it processed more than 71,000 requests from authorities and supported more than $131 million in seizures.

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These developments come as Binance continues to operate under compliance reforms agreed to during its settlement with US authorities, after the exchange pleaded guilty to anti-money laundering and sanctions violations, paying $4.3 billion in fines.

Binance denies allegations

According to Binance, recent reporting on the status of sanctions compliance is based on incomplete and mischaracterized information that does not reflect the complete record.

The company shared that the two entities referenced in the reports underwent structured internal reviews, which revealed that they were not on any sanctions lists while using the platform and that their transactions did not trigger alerts from industry-standard monitoring tools.

Binance added that as soon as new information was discovered, it activated its compliance protocols and took appropriate action.

The exchange also denied allegations that it fired research staff for working on these cases, clarifying that some relevant employees left after an internal review found breaches of the company’s data protection and confidentiality guidelines.

Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao also dismissed the claims on social media. to report,

“You can put a negative story on anything by talking to an ‘anonymous source’ who is ‘unlucky’ or paid to the FUD.”