Seizures from Binance Accounts

A criminal investigation might be underway if your funds in a Binance Account were frozen. Even if no one is ever arrested, the authorities might seize your funds from Binance under federal or state forfeiture laws. To seize the cryptocurrency in the account, the authorities need a seizure warrant issued by a judge.

After freezing the account, Binance might not tell you that a law enforcement agency already seized the property. You should receive a “notice of seizure” from the law enforcement agency that issued the warrant, but it might never arrive.

For federal seizures, you can search the forfeiture.gov website by going through each agency’s notices using an F1 search to find keywords that might help you identify your cryptocurrency or the account. It is nearly impossible to find a state-level forfeiture unless you find the notice that might be posted in the legal section of a newspaper. Florida law enforcement agencies also post their notices online at floridapublicnotices.com.

What is Binance? Binance is a cryptocurrency exchange where registered users can trade cryptocurrencies. When it suits Binance, it works with law enforcement offices in the United States to help them seize assets for civil asset forfeiture proceedings. Federal agents also meet with Binance employees to share intelligence and develop anti-money laundering policies.

Binance can provide law enforcement officers in the United States with information about its customers in the form of an Excel spreadsheet containing the account balance, deposit history, withdrawal history, Binance Pay, customer information, current assets and wallet, order history, fiat deposit history, fiat withdrawal history, access logs, approved devices, KYC documents, Binance send, and OTC Payment.

Other platforms, such as MEXC Global, Coinbase.com, and Crypto.com, have similar policies regarding cooperation with criminal and civil asset forfeiture investigations. Through this cooperation, a federal agency might obtain a federally authorized seizure warrant to seize cryptocurrency from Binance accounts.

The search warrant might allege the cryptocurrencies in the Binance accounts were utilized by a Money Laundering Organization (MLO) to transmit the proceeds of international drug trafficking. Alternatively, the complaint might allege that the Binance accounts facilitated unlicensed money transmitting through cryptocurrency transactions.

For international drug trafficking cases, the complaint lists the money laundering activities of the MLO. Those activities might include:

• using couriers who pick up bulk U.S. currency obtained from drug trafficking sales;
• deposit the bulk currency into a bank account;
• convert the currency to Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies;
• use Binance to purchase USDT as well as bitcoin (BTC); and
• transmit the cryptocurrency to a digital address provided to cryptocurrency account operators by the criminal organization.

The complaint might allege that at least one of the financial accounts involved and utilized in the conspiracy was located in the jurisdiction where the complaint was filed. Read more about the seizure of Bitcoin for forfeiture.

Attorney for Forfeiture Seizures from Binance

Call us if the U.S. government or a law enforcement agency seized your assets for forfeiture from a Binance account. We also help clients after a cryptocurrency seizure from platforms like Binance, MEXC Global, Coinbase, or Crypto.com.

We can help you determine what happened to your cryptocurrency after it was seized for forfeiture, secure a copy of the seizure warrant and affidavit supporting the warrant, and file a claim to contest the seizure.

Our civil asset forfeiture lawyers understand the best ways to contest the seizure for forfeiture. Attorneys from around the country contact us to serve as co-counsel on their cases. We are happy to help.

Call 813-250-0500 to discuss the case.

Background Related to Nest Services Limited (Binance)

According to a recent pleading filed in a forfeiture case by the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, Binance Holdings Limited d/b/a Binance has a registered agent address of Harbour Place, 2nd Floor North Wing, George Town, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands.

Another recent pleading filed in a forfeiture case by the Marion County Sheriff’s Office says that Binance.com maintains a physical address of One Letterman Drive, Bldg. C, Ste. C3-800, The Presidio, San Francisco, CA 94129.

The pleading also listed the following background information about Nest Services Limited (Binance):

1. Nest Services Limited (Binance) was founded in 2017 and is one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges. It offers a wide range of services, including spot, futures, margin, and options trading. The platform supports a wide array of cryptocurrencies, and its native Binance Coin (BNB) provides users with transaction fee discounts and other benefits. Binance also operates a decentralized exchange (DEX), staking and savings programs, and the Binance Launchpad for Initial Exchange Offerings (IEOs).
2. Beyond trading, Nest Services Limited (Binance) has developed the Binance Smart Chain (BSC), a blockchain platform supporting smart contracts and decentralized applications (dApps), known for its low transaction fees and Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatibility. The exchange ensures robust security with advanced measures like multi-tier system architecture, Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), and two-factor authentication (2FA). Despite facing challenges in some jurisdictions, it has made significant efforts in regulatory compliance by implementing know-your-customer (KYC) procedures and collaborating with regulatory bodies.
3. Nest Services Limited (Binance) acknowledges the authority of U.S.A. courts of law, including both federal and state courts across all circuits, divisions, and other jurisdictional boundaries. Their terms of service expressly state that user conduct “is subject to the laws, regulations, and rules of any applicable governmental or regulatory authority.” Nest Services Limited (Binance) invites regulatory and compliance contacts from the U.S.A. and other global entities via a portal. Nest Services Limited (Binance) facilitates law enforcement investigations and accepts legal process through the same portal.
4. According to information publically accessible on the internet, the Nest Services Limited (Binance) is a global virtual currency exchange where buyers and sellers can connect and conduct transactions. Specifically, Nest Services Limited (Binance) allows users to buy and sell bitcoin in exchange for digital assets and fiat currencies, and to engage in futures and other derivative trading. It also allows users to store their bitcoin in virtual wallets on the Nest Services Limited (Binance) platform. To facilitate these transactions, Nest Services Limited (Binance) allows subscribers to create accounts, like the Target Account(s) at issue here, that are associated with basic subscriber information including an email address. Additionally, Nest Services Limited (Binance) facilitates private communications via its internal messaging platform between its users and Nest Services Limited (Binance) employees for customer service issues, as well as between buyers and sellers about potential or ongoing transactions.
5. Nest Services Limited (Binance) typically retains transactional information about the creation and use of each account on Nest Services Limited (Binance) systems. This information can include the date on which the account was created, the length of service, records of log-in (i.e., session) times and durations, the types of service used, the status of the account (including whether the account is inactive or closed), notes on trade disputes, the methods used to connect to the account (such as logging into the account via Nest Services Limited (Binance) or mobile application), and other log files that reflect usage of the account. Nest Services Limited (Binance) further retains records of the Internet Protocol (“IP”) address used to register the account, and the IP addresses associated with particular logins to the account. Because every device that connects to the Internet must use an IP address, IP address information can help to identify which computers or other devices were used to access the account.
6. In addition to the information described above, Nest Services Limited (Binance) further retains information regarding Nest Services Limited (Binance) account activity on its internal messaging platform. As outlined in the Nest Services Limited (Binance) Privacy Notice, this includes, among other things, messages submitted via email and chat, online forms, and video conferencing services. These chats may include financial information if the user provided that to Nest Services Limited (Binance) support services staff. Nest Services Limited (Binance) also keeps and stores trading activity, transaction history, device identifiers, affiliate names, affiliate IDs, affiliate links, affiliate transactions, information regarding offers created and the terms of those offers, instructions provided by Nest Services Limited (Binance) subscribers regarding certain trades, and account notifications. Finally, I know from my training and experience that Nest Services Limited (Binance) retains information regarding a user’s Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency wallets, such as Bitcoin private keys, Bitcoin public keys, wallet balances, and information regarding Bitcoin transactions sent by and received from wallets on Nest Services Limited (Binance).

Background on Binance Holdings Ltd.

In Licht v. Binance Holdings Ltd., 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 34421, *12, 2025 WL 624025, the court explained:

At relevant times, Binance did business as, and ran, Binance.com, an online exchange platform through which millions of users around the world bought and sold virtual assets, including cryptocurrency. Binance, founded mainly by Zhao in 2017, became the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world. It is a Cayman Islands corporation. See #36 ¶¶ 1, 36, 38; see also #57-4, Binance Statement of Facts, ¶¶ 1-4; #57-5 ¶ 9d.

When a user opened an account, Binance assigned the user a custodial virtual asset wallet, that is, a digital wallet in Binance’s custody, that allowed the user to conduct transactions on the platform Binance.com, including the transfer of assets to other Binance users or to external digital wallets, and to convert cryptocurrency into fiat currency that could then be transferred to traditional bank accounts, including foreign bank accounts, or otherwise withdrawn. See #36 ¶ 50; see also #57-4, Binance Statement of Facts, ¶ 15.

Binance charged its users fees for every transaction. (#36 ¶ 51.) The fees varied based on a user’s trading volume, with higher-volume traders typically paying lower fees. (#57-4, Binance Statement of Facts, ¶ 16.) Higher-volume traders helped provide liquidity, which is critical to a large cryptocurrency exchange. For any cryptocurrency traded on its platform, Binance needed individuals or entities willing to “make markets” in that cryptocurrency by buying or selling at a relatively predictable price and being able to trade in high volumes and variable amounts. These high-volume traders were often referred to as “market makers.” To attract “market makers,” Binance rewarded them with “VIP” status, which conferred benefits including lower fees. Id. Binance assessed a user’s VIP status monthly based on the user’s prior 30-day trading volume and holdings in Binance’s proprietary coin, BNB. Id. ¶ 17. VIP users were an important part of Binance’s business model. Id. ¶ 18.

The location of Binance was described in a footnote:

Binance has referred to itself as “headquarterless,” see #36 ¶ 36, and admitted in pleading guilty that, in part to make it more difficult to regulate, it was “intentionally vague” about its principal place of business. Around 2017, senior leaders were based in China, but from around 2018 to around 2021, they were based in various places. After 2021, they operated from the United Arab Emirates and other countries in Asia. (#57-4, Binance Statement of Facts, ¶ 26.).

This article was last updated on Friday, December 13, 2024.