Binance has declared that it has significantly slashed its exposure to sanctioned entities, reporting a striking 97% decrease since January 2024. This information surfaced amidst allegations of sanctions breaches and claims that investigators who raised compliance issues were dismissed.

Binance Surpasses Industry Standards

According to recent reports by Fortune, several investigators were let go after identifying over $1 billion in transactions associated with Iranian entities, primarily revolving around Tether’s USDT on the Tron blockchain over the last 18 months.

Additionally, the analytics firm Elliptic highlighted that wallets connected to the Central Bank of Iran had gathered more than $500 million in USDT, illustrating an increasing dependence on stablecoins to navigate banking limitations.

In its blog post, Binance stated that its compliance program is “best-in-class” and is continuously being bolstered. The exchange presented data indicating that its sanctions-related exposure fell from 0.284% of its total exchange volume in January 2024 to just 0.009% by July 2025, a decline of 96.8%.

Furthermore, its direct ties with the four largest Iranian cryptocurrency exchanges have diminished by 97.3% over the same duration, positioning Binance ahead of ten major global exchange competitors in shrinking risk exposure. In 2025, the company claims to have processed upwards of 71,000 requests from authorities pertaining to compliance issues, assisting in confiscations exceeding $131 million.

Binance’s Response to Allegations

Binance countered the allegations regarding its sanctions compliance, stating that the reports are based on incomplete and mischaracterized information. The company assured that the entities mentioned in the reports were reviewed internally and confirmed not to be on any sanctions lists as they conducted transactions via the platform, which did not trigger alerts from standard monitoring tools.

The exchange further denied the claims about terminating investigation staff working on these issues, clarifying that certain relevant employees left following an internal inquiry that uncovered breaches of data protection guidelines.

In the midst of these claims, Changpeng Zhao, the former CEO, voiced his concerns on social media, asserting:

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

This latest episode comes as Binance continues to navigate compliance reforms tied to its settlement with U.S. authorities, following its admission of guilt related to anti-money laundering violations with a hefty penalty of $4.3 billion.