Rating report
Binance
Grade B-, 3.3 out of 5
Binance publishes a self-attested proof-of-reserves page and a $1bn SAFU user-protection fund, which covered the May 2019 hot-wallet theft of about 7,000 BTC in full; it settled U.S. Bank Secrecy Act and sanctions charges for $4.3bn in November 2023 and remains under a five-year DOJ compliance monitorship.
By Safety Desk. Facts checked against official sources on .
Findings, check by check
Every KripZen grade comes from the same five weighted checks. Here is how Binance scores on each.
Proof of reserves 30%
Publishes Merkle-tree proof of reserves covering 30-plus assets, most recently a 1 January 2026 snapshot of 636,535 BTC, but the reports are self-published rather than independently audited.
What “Proof of reserves” meansPartial or unaudited
Custody 25%
Cold/hot storage split is not disclosed; we could not confirm it from a primary source.
What “Custody” meansPartial or unaudited
Regulation 20%
Holds an ADGM (UAE) authorisation and, via Binance.US, money-transmitter licences in 30 states (NMLS ID 1906829); pleaded guilty to U.S. Bank Secrecy Act and sanctions violations in November 2023, paying $4.3bn and accepting a five-year DOJ compliance monitorship running to 2028.
What “Regulation” meansPartial or unaudited
Insurance 15%
SAFU user-protection fund, established in 2018 and topped up to $1bn in November 2022; it covered the May 2019 hack in full.
Disclosed
Incident history 10%
About 7,000 BTC (roughly $40m at the time) drained from hot wallets on 7 May 2019; the SAFU fund covered the loss in full and no user lost funds. No platform breach of comparable scale has been reported since.
Partial or unaudited
The weights are the same for every exchange. Read the full methodology
Licences and registrations
The 11 entries we could confirm for Binance on a regulator’s register or the exchange’s own legal pages. A licence in one country does not mean the service is open to you.
| Regulator | Licence or registration | Register number |
|---|---|---|
| FSRA (ADGM)United Arab Emirates | Recognised Investment Exchange (Derivatives) / MTF Nest Exchange Limited | Not published |
| FSRA (ADGM)United Arab Emirates | Recognised Clearing House (custody, CSD) Nest Clearing and Custody Limited | Not published |
| FSRA (ADGM)United Arab Emirates | Financial Services Permission (dealing, arranging, managing assets, money services, custody) Nest Trading Limited | Not published |
| Astana Financial Services Authority (AIFC)Kazakhstan | Digital Asset Trading Facility Operator / custody BN KZ Technologies Limited | Not published |
| Central Bank of BahrainBahrain | Category 4 CASP Binance Bahrain BSC(c) | Not published |
| VARAUnited Arab Emirates | VASP licence (Dubai) Binance FZE | Not published |
| AUSTRACAustralia | Digital Currency Exchange registration InvestbyBit Pty Ltd | 100576141-001 |
| JFSA (Kanto Local Finance Bureau)Japan | Crypto Asset Exchange Service Provider Binance Japan Inc. | Kanto Local Finance Bureau 00031 |
| New Zealand FSPRNew Zealand | FSP registration (not licensed) Investbybit Limited | FSP1003864 |
| CNAD / BCREl Salvador | DASP + Bitcoin Services Provider Binance Services Latinoamerica S.A. de C.V. | PSDA/001-2003 |
| CNVArgentina | VASP registry Binance Services Latinoamerica S.A. de C.V. | 76 |
Fees, products and reach
- Spot fees (base tier)
- 0.1% maker, 0.1% takerRegular User (VIP 0), <1M USD 30-day volume; 0.075% with BNB
- Proof of reserves
- PublishedLatest report seen: 2026-10-01
- Products
- Spot, Futures, Staking, P2P
- Founded
- 2017
- Not offered under its own terms in
- United States, Canada, Netherlands, Cuba, North Korea, Iran
Base-tier fees from the exchange’s own fee page. Your real cost depends on order type, volume tier and spread; try your numbers in the Exchange Fee Calculator
Our Binance review
Binance earns a B- on our five-factor rubric. It discloses more than most venues of its size, and the two things it does not disclose are the two that matter most on the day an exchange gets into trouble.
What checks out
The SAFU user-protection fund is the strongest single item on the record. Set up in 2018 and topped up to $1bn in November 2022, it covered the May 2019 hot-wallet theft in full — a fund tested in public, rather than one described in a policy document. Binance also publishes Merkle-tree proof of reserves across more than 30 assets; the most recent snapshot we recorded, dated 1 January 2026, covers 636,535 BTC.
Where the evidence stops
Those reserve reports are self-published. No independent accountant signs them, which makes them a claim you can inspect rather than one somebody else has checked — proof of reserves is not an audit, and here it is not even attested. The cold/hot storage split is not disclosed at all, and we could not confirm it from a primary source. On licensing, Binance holds an ADGM authorisation in the UAE and, through Binance.US, money-transmitter licences in 30 states under NMLS ID 1906829. It also pleaded guilty in November 2023 to U.S. Bank Secrecy Act and sanctions violations, paid $4.3bn, and accepted a five-year DOJ compliance monitorship that runs to 2028.
How to read the grade
A monitored exchange is not the same as an unwatched one: the monitorship exists because the failures were established, and it also means somebody is now checking. The B- describes a venue with real, tested loss cover and a real enforcement history, whose reserve and custody disclosures still rest on its own word. About 7,000 BTC left its hot wallets in May 2019 and no user lost money, because the fund paid. That is the shape of the risk here.
Incidents on record
2019
Binance
Hack, May 2019. ~7,000 BTC (~$40M at the time) taken from a hot wallet (publicly reported estimate)
On 7 May 2019 attackers withdrew roughly 7,000 BTC — about $40 million at the time — from a Binance hot wallet in a single transaction, using stolen API keys and phished credentials. Binance covered the entire loss from its Secure Asset Fund for Users, and customer balances were left untouched.
The lesson: A reserve funded before a breach turns a hack into an accounting entry rather than a customer loss. Check that the fund exists and is disclosed today, not that one is promised afterwards.
Dates and figures are widely reported public estimates from coverage at the time, not KripZen's own audited data.
Sources
Every fact on this page comes from one of these official pages, checked on October 20, 2026.
Where to go next
Other exchanges we've graded
How to read these grades: each is derived from published, checkable disclosures — proof-of-reserves attestations, public regulatory registers, disclosed insurance funds and the documented incident record — using the weighted rubric below. Where an exchange does not disclose something, we mark it unverified rather than assume it. These are not audits and not investment advice; they reflect what was published as of our last review. Cryptocurrency investments carry risk, including loss of principal. Nothing on KripZen is financial advice — always do your own research before buying, trading or moving funds.