BI
World's largest centralized crypto exchange — 500+ assets, mandatory KYC for every user, SAFU insurance fund, monthly Merkle-tree proof-of-reserves, and a $4.3B 2023 DOJ settlement with an ongoing compliance monitor.
Binance, founded in 2017 by Changpeng "CZ" Zhao and now regulated primarily out of Abu Dhabi Global Markets (ADGM), is the world's largest centralized cryptocurrency exchange by spot and derivatives volume. It lists 500+ assets and claims over 270 million registered users across spot, margin, futures, options, earn, and a P2P fiat-to-crypto desk. NoKYCList catalogues Binance for comparison only: every user must complete government-ID verification before trading, depositing fiat, or withdrawing any meaningful amount of crypto. There is no anonymous tier and no workaround.
Sign-up requires an email or phone number, a password, and an immediate KYC flow: passport or national-ID upload, a selfie liveness check, and for higher fiat limits a proof-of-address. Verified accounts access spot, margin up to 10×, perpetual and quarterly futures, options, earn products, Launchpad, the NFT marketplace, and the P2P fiat desk — which still requires a KYC'd Binance account on both sides. Deposits, withdrawals, and internal transfers are subject to FATF travel-rule data collection in jurisdictions where it applies.
Binance collects full legal name, date of birth, residential address, ID document, selfie video, device fingerprint, and IP address at registration and retains them per local regulations — at minimum five years under the FATF travel rule, longer in many jurisdictions. Under the 2023 DOJ plea, Binance also operates a three-year independent compliance monitorship that reviews customer onboarding data and on-chain flows. Users in OFAC-sanctioned regions are blocked, and accounts flagged through the monitor's workflow can be frozen pending review.
Binance's scale is unmatched — 24/7 desks, the deepest order books on most majors, and infrastructure that has survived a decade of regulatory pressure. The SAFU insurance fund is visible on-chain (roughly 15,000 BTC as of early 2026), and since December 2022 the exchange publishes a monthly Merkle-tree proof-of-reserves that any user can self-verify against their own balance. Those are genuine transparency wins compared with most custodial venues. The counterweight is that Binance was fined $4.3 billion by the US DOJ in November 2023 for Bank Secrecy Act and sanctions violations — the largest corporate settlement in US crypto history — and a 2026 Financial Times investigation reported that suspicious flows continued even after the settlement. The SEC civil case was dismissed with prejudice in May 2025, but the Bank Secrecy Act conviction stands, the monitorship runs through 2027, and audit firm Mazars dropped Binance from its proof-of-reserves roster in late 2022 without a Big Four replacement signing on since.
Binance scores 4.2/10 on NoKYCList's methodology. The mandatory KYC tier (L5) pins privacy at the floor regardless of operational strength. For users who need liquidity, 500+ assets, and a publicly collateralised custodial venue — and who accept full identity disclosure — Binance remains the default. For anyone building a no-KYC stack, it sits in this directory as a reference point, not a recommendation.
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