Binance History & Founding Timeline

Between 2017 and 2022, Binance systematically under-invested in anti-money laundering compliance infrastructure relative to the scale of its operations. The DOJ settlement documented that Binance processed transactions for sanctioned entities and failed to implement adequate KYC/AML controls, ultimately resulting in a 4.3 billion USD penalty and lasting institutional trust damage that will take years to repair.

The relationship between Binance.com and Binance.US was inadequately structured and insufficiently ring-fenced, creating regulatory exposure that regulators — particularly the SEC and CFTC — exploited to argue Binance.US was not genuinely independent. The failure to establish genuine operational separation between the U.S. and global entities contributed materially to U.S. regulatory enforcement actions.

CZ's public announcement on Twitter in November 2022 that Binance would liquidate its FTT token holdings — while potentially commercially justified — triggered a bank run on FTX that accelerated its collapse. The aftermath drew intense regulatory scrutiny toward Binance itself, with regulators and lawmakers questioning whether Binance had deliberately destabilized a competitor. The episode, regardless of intent, entangled Binance in a reputational and regulatory narrative it would have been better positioned to avoid.