Binance

The exchange lists more than 600 cryptocurrencies for trading and counts over 320 million registered users in more than 180 countries. Spot trading, futures and an application programming interface for automated orders all run on the same order books. Binance is a blockchain ecosystem and cryptocurrency infrastructure provider whose product range includes the largest digital asset exchange.

Binance Pay is the crypto payment service of the exchange, and users send crypto to each other through it without paying gas fees. Online and offline stores accept more than 100 cryptocurrencies through Binance Pay, including the stablecoins USDC and USDT. Binance reports more than 48 million active users of its Pay service.

For funds, trading firms and companies, Binance runs VIP and institutional services with more than 2,000 trading pairs, deposits and withdrawals in over 100 fiat currencies, and an API for automated order execution. Large orders go through an OTC desk, which executes block trades outside the public order books. Portfolio margin adds up the balances of several accounts, and the financing desk gives institutional clients credit lines with individual loan terms.

Binance also sells institutional staking with structured yield products, and a portfolio account lets one manager run several strategies in an omnibus structure. For wealth managers, trading technology providers and regulated institutions, Binance has Binance Wealth, the Binance OMS Toolkit and a crypto-as-a-service offer.

Institutional clients who keep their assets off the exchange use custody at Ceffu, the institutional custody partner of Binance. With off-exchange settlement through MirrorX, the assets stay locked in custody at Ceffu while a Binance sub-account mirrors them one to one for spot, margin and futures trading. Ceffu settles these positions with Binance after the trading day, so the client assets never move onto the exchange.

On 30 November 2023 Binance announced Banking Triparty, an arrangement in which a third-party bank holds the trading collateral of institutional investors. The collateral can be held as fiat equivalents such as Treasury bills, which limits the counterparty risk that clients carry toward the exchange. Binance runs the arrangement for clients who draw credit on the platform.

The Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Abu Dhabi Global Market supervises three Binance companies with the Nest name. Nest Exchange Limited is a recognized investment exchange for derivatives, and Nest Clearing and Custody Limited is a recognized clearing house that also provides custody. Nest Trading Limited holds permissions for dealing as principal and agent, arranging deals, managing assets and arranging custody.

In the European Union a crypto exchange needs an authorization under MiCA, and the national transitional periods ended on 1 July 2026 at the latest. Binance had applied to the Hellenic Capital Market Commission in Greece and withdrew that application on 24 June 2026, stating that it would seek authorization in another EU member state. The interim MiCA register of ESMA in its update of 16 October 2026 contains no Binance company among the authorized crypto-asset service providers.

No Binance company holds a MiCA license as of 16 October 2026, the date of the latest update of the ESMA register for crypto-asset service providers. Binance withdrew its application in Greece on 24 June 2026 and announced that it would seek authorization in another EU member state.

Customers use Binance to buy and sell crypto assets, to trade futures and to earn staking rewards on their holdings. Binance Pay moves crypto between users and to merchants, while institutions use the OTC desk for block trades and Ceffu for custody.

Under MiCA in Germany, a crypto exchange that serves German customers needs an authorization from BaFin or a passport from another EU supervisor. The ESMA register shows no such authorization for a Binance company in its update of 16 October 2026.

Institutions can keep their assets in a Binance account, hold them at Ceffu and trade through off-exchange settlement, or leave collateral with a bank under Banking Triparty. The last two models reduce the amount of client assets held on the exchange at any time.