(Updates with comments from Binance in the second through sixth paragraphs.)
In recent weeks, two Binance employees were detained in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as part of a police probe into possible financial crimes involving the platform, The New York Times reported, citing four sources.
A Binance spokesperson told Sandmark on 21 Aug that the employees were "never the targets or subjects of these inquiries, and all who provided statements were promptly cleared and released."
The largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume said that a small number of its employees were asked to provide "standard statements" to local authorities as part of what it described as part of "routine inquiries relating to third-party fund flows through a Binance client money account."
"Cryptocurrency and the mechanics of institutional client money accounts remain emerging concepts in many jurisdictions; we are working constructively with Dubai Police and authorities across other Emirates to establish clear, appropriate coordination procedures," the spokesperson said.
The exchange said it "continues to cooperate fully with UAE authorities to ensure a complete understanding of our platform and to support robust compliance safeguards."
It did not identify the employees involved, name the client whose account was under scrutiny, or provide further details of the inquiry.
BNB (BNB), the token issued by the exchange, showed no reaction to the report. It traded at $654.48 at 23:00UTC on 20 Aug, around the time the Times story circulated, and at $661.42 two hours later, a rise of 1.1% during a session in which the wider crypto market was rallying sharply.
Both employees were stopped at airports in the UAE, according to the Times. A mid-level employee travelling through Sharjah in August was "stopped, taken to a police station and held overnight," the paper reported. It did not describe the second employee's encounter with authorities in detail.
Separately, a third Binance official – the head of the exchange's Dubai-based subsidiary – was questioned at a police station in July, the Times said.
The reported UAE police contacts would mark the first publicly known instance of Binance staff being detained or questioned by police in the UAE, a key regulated operating base for an exchange that has faced regulatory and criminal scrutiny elsewhere, including the 2024 detention in Nigeria of a Binance compliance official who was released only after months in custody and US diplomatic pressure.
Binance pleaded guilty in November 2023 to wilfully violating the Bank Secrecy Act, operating an unlicensed money transmitting business and breaching US sanctions rules, agreeing to pay $4.3bn in fines and restitution.
Its founder, Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, separately pleaded guilty to failing to maintain an effective anti-money-laundering programme at the exchange. He was sentenced to four months in prison in April 2024, paid a $50mn fine and completed his sentence that September. On 23 Oct 2025, he received a full presidential pardon from Donald Trump.
In the UAE, Binance secured an initial Dubai licence in March 2022 and its local subsidiary, Binance FZE, later obtained a full Virtual Asset Service Provider licence from Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), allowing it to serve retail, professional and institutional customers. The exchange subsequently transferred UAE-resident accounts to the locally regulated platform.
