Binance, like banks and any other traditional financial institutions you interact with, must comply with local, state, and federal laws to adhere to regulations and provide a safe trading environment for our users.

This is crucial for the blockchain and cryptocurrency ecosystem. However, jurisdictions around the world have strict rules that both cryptocurrency exchanges and law enforcement must follow before a user's account can be frozen.

This ensures that law enforcement has the necessary tools to conduct investigations. We do our utmost to clarify this commitment in our Terms of Use and throughout our entire ecosystem.

The implementation of clear processes for receiving and responding to requests from regulatory and law enforcement agencies allows for the establishment of a robust product ecosystem on the Binance platform without fear of widespread disruption due to extensive regulatory actions.

The existence of these policies protects the interests of over 100 million users, preventing bad actors from exploiting users on our platform and promoting a more stable trading environment.

A specific tool often used by law enforcement is to temporarily block accounts that may be flagged as potentially operating outside of our Terms of Use for various reasons.

It is important to understand that law enforcement often needs to freeze multiple accounts to determine which accounts are or are not involved in their investigation. Unfortunately, this means that these investigations can often temporarily affect innocent users.

We understand that having an account suspended is an extremely unpleasant situation for any user, especially when the reason for the suspension may not be immediately clear. However, Binance is working with regulators and law enforcement to ensure investigations minimize the potential ban time for innocent users.

Below, we will detail some common reasons why accounts may be flagged for suspension, providing a bit of context about what this means for Binance, users, and the processes applied to address their account suspension potential.

Reason

Typically, an account on Binance may be temporarily frozen for one of the main reasons listed below. This list is not exhaustive, and there are always special exceptions that our team considers when evaluating these accounts, but they represent the most common cases.

  • Protecting users' funds

If our system detects that your account may have been compromised, we will temporarily lock your account to ensure the safety of your funds.

Back in January 2019, our system could even detect when users changed their SIM cards and had their passwords stolen, and could proactively restrict affected accounts, preventing hackers from draining assets.

In a specific case, this proactive blocking prevented the attacker from stealing the entire altcoin portfolio of the user.

There are many ways your account can be hacked without your knowledge. Any file you download or receive may contain viruses, another exchange you use may have leaked your email address and password, or you may fall victim to SIM swapping, etc.

As cybercrime becomes more sophisticated, these techniques will continue to evolve, but so will our ability to protect users' funds.

Very often, even hackers try to contact our customer service team, attempting to trick us into releasing funds so they can steal them. That's why we have such strong KYC processes in place and why we require personal identification documents and similar items.

This is necessary to ensure the safety of your funds.

When facing these issues, the best course of action is to contact our customer support team, provide them with the information they need, and be patient while we unlock your account.

  • Protecting users from scammers

As a centralized exchange, Binance provides fiat currency traders with multiple ways to interact with the Binance ecosystem.

If our system detects that you are a victim of a scammer, we will block your account to ensure that you still have control over your account and are informed on how to detect and prevent.

The two most common ways to do this are through Binance P2P, as well as directly depositing fiat. For the majority of users, this is a safe process.

However, in some cases, attackers may attempt to exploit these systems to scam users. Thanks to our monitoring system and with the help of feedback from users, we can detect the majority of such attempts and immediately block suspicious accounts until we can conduct a detailed investigation.

Our customer support team will then work with affected users to ensure they are aware of the situation and provide assistance. Responsible parties will be banned from Binance and reported to relevant authorities.

  • Sanctions

If you reside in a sanctioned country or territory, we will have to block your account and begin removal. In most cases, you will not be able to register or complete KYC. But new rules are emerging, especially as the geopolitical situation continues to change.

We do not issue sanctions, but we must comply. There is no option here. In most cases, your account will be placed in withdrawal-only mode and you will be required to withdraw your assets. We will notify users who must comply with these restrictions in advance so they can take any necessary actions.

To comply with international regulations, even if you are not a sanctioned individual or organization, you may still be considered to have a potential connection with a sanctioned individual or organization and therefore not allowed to trade on our platform.

In recent months, instances of certain cryptocurrency organizations being sanctioned by global regulatory bodies have become more frequent. Users should carefully monitor such news to avoid interacting with such websites. Any transactions made on such sites may also result in account blocking.

We maintain working groups with most of these global organizations and strive to promote cryptocurrency under international law.

  • Restricted countries

If you have traveled to a restricted country, your account may also be blocked.

For example, if you travel to the United States and access your account, our system will lock your account and require you to confirm that you are not a U.S. citizen or resident.

This is to ensure that U.S. citizens or residents do not use Binance.com (instead, they can use Binance.US).

  • Violation of terms of use

If we detect that you have violated our Terms of Use, we may block your account for a certain period or until the issue is resolved. There may be several reasons for this, but some of the most common reasons include submitting fake documents, exhibiting abusive behavior, or showing signs of hacking behavior.

In most cases, our customer service team will inform you of the reason why our Terms of Use were violated so that you can take appropriate action. In serious cases, we may need to involve law enforcement and may not be able to immediately provide you with the exact reason.

Our team has a strict process in place to provide users with as much information as possible to expedite this process.

However, we may not disclose the reason for the ban in some of the following cases.

  • Hacker

If we have reasonable grounds to believe that you are a hacker, we may engage law enforcement and may not immediately disclose to you the reason for the ban.

We often use this in cases where there is strong evidence.

Binance does not reclaim seized assets during this litigation but will instead return them to the relevant authorities as per court order or seizure order.

  • Law enforcement requests

As part of our commitment to building the world's safest and most compliant cryptocurrency exchange, Binance is closely collaborating with law enforcement and global regulators.

An important part of this relationship is that our compliance and security team will investigate accounts and wallets flagged by law enforcement as potentially related to criminal activity.

We take these requests very seriously and have previously cooperated to prevent the efforts of international cybercriminal organizations.

One such case is our work against Lazarus, the group responsible for the Ronin hack, where we played a key role in recovering $5.8 million stolen from users.

A specific tool often used by law enforcement is to temporarily block accounts marked as potentially violating our Terms of Use for various reasons.

It is important to understand that law enforcement often needs to freeze multiple accounts to determine which accounts are or are not involved in their investigation. Unfortunately, this means that these investigations can often temporarily affect innocent users.

Additionally, some requests from Law Enforcement (LE) allow us to disclose to users the nature of the investigation and even guide users to contact the relevant authorities.

This is the preferred method in our interactions with users, but we are often requested by authorities not to disclose the nature of the request to affected users. In this case, we cannot provide users with any information other than that they may have violated our Terms of Use.

What should I do if my Binance account is suspended?

We understand that you may feel frustrated when logging into your Binance account and seeing that it has been locked. You can rest assured that we have procedures in place to recover accounts and address any account difficulties.

It is best to contact our customer service team for more information about the ban and take appropriate action to unblock your account. You may also reach out to our Help Center to learn more about this process.

Account suspensions can often be lifted by providing our team with additional information or supporting documentation. Additionally, law enforcement agencies in most jurisdictions are required to contact users directly if they officially seize funds from their accounts, providing an opportunity for them to reclaim those funds through legal channels.

Sometimes accounts may be frozen, which is entirely beyond Binance's control. We ask for your patience and understanding as we work with outside parties applying the ban to unlock your account as quickly as possible.

Conclusion

Binance prioritizes customer safety, and we continue to invest in the best people and technology in the market to keep pace with the ever-changing ecosystem.

But do not forget that the responsibility for managing their cryptocurrency assets lies with the users. Therefore, it is extremely important to know where users are sending their funds and where they are receiving money from.

Binance will continue to take measures to protect users from malicious actors and expand its investigation and threat assessment capabilities.