What is Binance? Who owns it, how it works and what it costs

Who owns and runs Binance

Binance was launched in July 2017 by Changpeng Zhao, known as CZ, who is now listed on its about page as co-founder and former chief executive. The same page lists Richard Teng and Yi He as co-CEOs, Yi He and Heina Chen as co-founders, and Gabriel Abed as chairman of an independent board that also includes Xin Wang and Max Yang.

The SEC's 2023 complaint identified Binance Holdings Ltd. as the operator of Binance.com. In December 2025 the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) approved Binance.com through three entities, and regulated activity was scheduled to start on 5 January 2026:

The ADGM announcement also notes that Binance's global operations remain distributed, so the licence does not by itself tell you which entity serves your account. Binance's licences page currently lists only the ADGM entities.

What Binance offers

The about page lists exchange trading, Buy Crypto, Binance Pay and crypto payments, a card, Auto-Invest, Launchpool, ETH staking, OTC and execution services, P2P merchant services and institutional and VIP services, alongside Binance Academy, Binance Research and Binance Square. Futures are offered as USDⓈ-margined and coin-margined contracts. Availability of each product depends on where you live.

Two names are often confused with the exchange:

• BNB and BNB Chain: BNB is the token Binance uses for fee discounts and VIP tiers. BNB Chain describes itself as three community-led blockchains (BNB Smart Chain, opBNB and BNB Greenfield). BNB Chain reported its 37th quarterly burn on 19 October 2026, removing 1,646,196.44 BNB and leaving a supply of about 131.5 million.
• Binance Wallet: a separate Web3 app for on-chain trading and portfolio tracking across more than 30 networks, according to its own page. It is distinct from the balances in a Binance exchange account.

How Binance works

You open an account, deposit fiat or crypto, and trade either through simple buy-and-convert screens or on order books. On an order book your order is a maker order if it rests on the book and a taker order if it fills against an existing one. Crypto left on the exchange is held by Binance in custodial wallets; withdrawing it to an address you control moves it into your own custody. Binance blocks access from jurisdictions it does not serve using IP checks, VPN detection and other residency indicators, according to a June 2023 post on its blog.

Binance fees

Binance's spot fee schedule sets maker and taker fees by VIP level. Unlike most exchanges, each VIP level above Regular requires both a 30-day trading volume and a minimum BNB balance.

At the Regular level a $1,000 trade costs $1 whether it is a maker or a taker order, or $0.75 if the fee is paid in BNB. That 25% discount requires holding BNB, so its value to you moves with the BNB price. The futures fee page states that VIP benefits apply across all Binance products and that VIP volume counts both USDⓈ-M and coin-margined futures. Spreads on instant-buy screens, card payments and network withdrawal fees are separate costs; our guide to where exchange fees hide explains how to compare them.

Who can use Binance

Binance.com does not serve US residents, as Binance's own blog states. In the US, Binance.US is operated by BAM Trading Services Inc., which the SEC describes as a US-based affiliate that Zhao and Binance set up in September 2019. Binance's terms refer to a separate list of prohibited countries; that list could not be read for this profile, so check the terms that apply to your region before opening an account.

Security, custody and the October 2026 incident

A Binance exchange account is custodial. Binance's proof of reserves page says user assets are held 1:1 and uses a Merkle tree, verified with zk-SNARK circuits, so users can check that their balance was included and that no account carries a negative net balance. The page does not name an independent auditor, and a snapshot of this kind shows assets at a point in time; it cannot rule out liabilities held elsewhere.

On 30 October 2026 Binance disclosed a security incident. Its initial investigation suggested that a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop gave an attacker access to a service container used to submit unauthorized withdrawals. Binance estimated the total impact at around $6.3 billion, said about $3 billion had been frozen on-chain, reported no evidence of a wallet private key leak, and said it would cover all losses from its SAFU fund and company funds. Withdrawals were suspended while deposits continued. The ADGM regulator said it was engaging closely with Binance and monitoring the incident. On 1 November Binance's announcement page listed a further update titled "Withdrawals Resume in Phases"; Binance had not yet published its promised post-mortem.

Major incidents tend to bring phishing sites and fake support accounts that promise to speed up withdrawals. Our guide to avoiding crypto phishing covers the common patterns.

US enforcement record

• November 2023, Justice Department: Binance Holdings pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the Bank Secrecy Act and fail to register as a money transmitting business, failure to register, and violating US sanctions law (IEEPA). It agreed to pay $4.3 billion across the DOJ, CFTC, FinCEN and OFAC resolutions and to retain an independent compliance monitor.
• November 2023, CFTC: Binance agreed to pay $2.7 billion and Zhao $150 million. The CFTC found Binance offered derivatives to US persons from July 2019 and subverted its own compliance controls meant to restrict US users.
• Zhao: pleaded guilty in November 2023 to failing to maintain an effective anti-money-laundering program and resigned as chief executive. He was sentenced on 30 April 2024 to four months in prison and a $50 million fine, and received a presidential pardon on 21 October 2025, according to the Justice Department's pardon attorney.
• SEC: the SEC sued Binance Holdings, BAM Trading Services, BAM Management US Holdings and Zhao in June 2023. The parties filed to dismiss the case with prejudice on 29 May 2025; the SEC said the decision was a policy matter.

Alternatives by function

Other centralized exchanges differ in which entity serves you, how fee discounts work and where they operate; our exchange ratings compare published trading costs across the venues we cover. Binance's trading costs are assessed separately in our Binance review; this profile describes the company and does not grade it.