The latest controversy around Binance began quietly inside the company. According to investigations first detailed by The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, a group of internal compliance investigators at Binance discovered that entities linked to Iran had gained access to more than 1,500 accounts on the exchange.
As they dug deeper, they reportedly found that roughly $1.7 billion in crypto transactions had flowed from two accounts to Iranian-linked entities between 2024 and 2025.
Some of those entities were allegedly tied to the Houthis in Yemen, an Iran-backed armed group. The Houthis have been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States at different times, depending on administration policy. The investigators also identified possible links between crypto wallets and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, a branch of Iran’s military that the U.S. has designated as a foreign terrorist organization.
The findings were serious, especially because Binance had already pleaded guilty in 2023 to violating U.S. anti-money laundering laws and sanctions rules, including allowing users in Iran to transact on its platform.
Rachel Conlan, Chief Marketing Officer at Binance, told The New York Times: “Any suggestion that Binance knowingly allowed sanctionable activity to continue unchecked is incorrect and defamatory.” She added that the accounts in question were removed and that authorities were notified.
That denial is central to the story. Binance insists that detecting suspicious activity does not mean it approved or supported it.
Jemi Motesho
Binance’s 2023 Guilty Plea and Its Iran History
To understand why this matters, we have to go back to 2023. In November of that year, Binance pleaded guilty to criminal charges in the United States. The company admitted that it failed to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program and allowed users in sanctioned countries, including Iran, to trade on its platform.
The case was brought by the U.S. Department of Justice. As part of the settlement, Binance agreed to pay about $4.3 billion in penalties. Its founder, Changpeng Zhao, also known as CZ, pleaded guilty to violating U.S. anti-money laundering laws. He stepped down as CEO and was later sentenced to four months in prison.
At the time, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a Department of Justice statement: “Binance became the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world in part because of the crimes it committed — now it is paying one of the largest corporate penalties in U.S. history.”
Prosecutors said that between 2018 and 2022, Binance processed at least 1.1 million transactions worth nearly $900 million involving users in Iran, in violation of U.S. sanctions.
After the plea deal, Binance promised reforms. The company said it had hired dozens of compliance professionals, including former law enforcement officers, to strengthen oversight and prevent illegal transactions.
That promise makes the recent internal findings more sensitive. If Binance had already admitted to sanctions failures involving Iran, then fresh warnings from its own investigators raise questions about whether the reforms went far enough.
The Role of Blessed Trust and Hexa Whale Trading
The new internal review reportedly focused on two businesses that had relationships with Binance: Hexa Whale Trading Limited and Blessed Trust.
Hexa Whale, a Hong Kong-based firm, allegedly sent around $490 million through Binance to wallets tied to Iranian entities. According to reporting by The New York Times, Israeli law enforcement officials alerted Binance to possible terror financing routes connected to Iran. That prompted further internal review.
Binance said it removed the Hexa Whale account and notified U.S. authorities. Conlan, the CMO said the company, according to reporting by The New York Times, complied with its “legal and reporting obligations.”
Blessed Trust, another Hong Kong company, was described as a “fiat partner” for Binance, helping with currency conversions and other operational services. Internal investigators reportedly found that about $1.2 billion in crypto flowed from Blessed Trust’s Binance account to Iranian-linked entities over roughly two years.
Leung Ka Kui, a director of Blessed Trust, told The New York Times that the company did not “knowingly facilitate transactions in breach of applicable sanctions” and said it never made payments directly to Iranian entities. He described its work with Binance as “limited to routine operational disbursements.”
Binance has argued that there were multiple intermediary wallets between Blessed Trust and the alleged Iranian-linked wallets. In simple terms, the funds did not move in a straight line from Binance to an Iranian military group. Instead, there were several layers in between.
That detail matters legally. Sanctions violations often depend on whether a company knowingly facilitated a transaction or failed to act on clear warning signs.
Jemi Motesho
Were Binance Investigators Punished?
Another part of the story focuses on what happened inside Binance after the findings were reported.
According to documents reviewed by The New York Times and Fortune, at least four employees involved in the investigation were suspended or fired. The company said the disciplinary action was related to “violations of company protocol” involving client data, not because the employees raised compliance concerns.
Conlan told The New York Times: “No investigator was dismissed for raising compliance concerns or for reporting potential sanctions issues.”
However, the timing of the suspensions raised concerns among observers. The employees were reportedly disciplined shortly after their findings reached top executives, including Binance CEO Richard Teng and Chief Compliance Officer Noah Perlman.
From the outside, it is difficult to know exactly why the employees were removed. What is clear is that the situation has added to public scrutiny of Binance’s internal culture and governance.
Donald Trump’s Pardon of Changpeng Zhao
The political angle has also drawn attention. In late 2024, U.S. President Donald Trump pardoned Changpeng Zhao after he served his prison sentence.
Speaking to reporters at the time, Trump said: “They say what he did was not even a crime. It wasn’t a crime. That he was persecuted by the Biden administration and so I gave him a pardon at the request of a lot of very good people.”
Trump’s family crypto venture, World Liberty Financial, has reportedly worked with Binance. Zhao also attended an event at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Miami resort and private residence after his release.
Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary, described Zhao’s prosecution as part of a “war on cryptocurrency” by the previous administration, according to a statement reported by The New York Times.
David Adubiina
What Binance Says About Sanctions Compliance Today
Binance maintains that it has significantly improved its compliance systems since 2023. The company says it uses blockchain analysis tools and works with law enforcement agencies around the world.
Conlan said that detection of attempted logins from sanctioned jurisdictions “does not equate to servicing sanctioned persons.” In other words, someone trying to access an account from Iran does not automatically mean Binance allowed illegal transactions.
Binance has also said it shared information about Blessed Trust with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and the FBI and planned to submit further reports to the Justice Department.
From a legal point of view, the key issue will likely be intent and response. Did Binance knowingly allow transactions that violated sanctions? Or did it detect suspicious activity and act appropriately once it became aware?
So far, no new criminal charges have been announced in connection with the alleged $1.7 billion in Iranian-linked transactions.
