Updated 28 October 2026: rewritten, expanded and fact-checked against the sources listed in the article.
The US Justice Department told its crypto prosecutors to expect less help from Binance, according to an internal memo reported by The Information on 8 July 2026. Reuters carried the headline the same day. The guidance said that from 8 June 2026 Binance would stop providing “courtesy freezes” on customer accounts and might ask for formal legal process before freezing or seizing funds. Binance rejected that account and said its cooperation with US law enforcement had not changed.
The memo is a DOJ document describing what prosecutors were told about Binance. It is not a Binance announcement, and the reports did not say that Binance had refused any specific US request. Below is what was reported, what Binance said, and the 2023 plea agreement that frames the dispute.
What the memo reportedly said
According to Crypto Briefing’s summary of The Information’s report (8 July 2026), the memo told prosecutors that Binance “will no longer provide courtesy freezes on customer assets” from 8 June. Law enforcement would instead need formal Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) requests before seeking some freezes or seizures.
A courtesy freeze is a voluntary, temporary hold. An exchange locks a suspicious account within hours of a request from police or a victim, before a court order or treaty request arrives. MLAT requests go through government-to-government channels and can take weeks or months. Unchained (9 July 2026) noted that this delay can give hackers and sanctions evaders time to move funds.
Unchained and Cryptopolitan (9 July 2026) reported that the guidance was sent in June by Rachel Jones, the DOJ’s digital currency counsel. Unchained also reported that Binance was negotiating a formal end to its DOJ monitorship and that a separate Treasury monitorship remained in place.
Binance’s response
Binance denied any change. A statement quoted by crypto.news (9 July 2026) said: “There has been and will be no change to Binance’s cooperation with U.S. law enforcement.” The company said it would keep responding to valid US requests tied to active investigations. The same report cites Binance as saying authorities had seized more than $752 million with its help over three years.
Cryptopolitan reported that Binance blamed the memo on a misreading of its obligations under its licence from Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), the UAE financial free zone where Binance holds a licence that took effect in January 2026. Binance said it had raised the memo with DOJ officials while seeking to end the monitorship. We found no public DOJ statement confirming or withdrawing the memo.
Background: the 2023 plea agreement
The memo matters because Binance is still bound by the settlements it reached with four US agencies on 21 November 2023:
- Justice Department: Binance pleaded guilty to operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business, Bank Secrecy Act violations and sanctions violations. It agreed to an independent compliance monitor for three years.
- Treasury: FinCEN imposed a $3.4 billion civil penalty and a five-year monitorship. OFAC imposed a $968 million penalty, and Binance had to exit the US market entirely (Treasury press release).
- CFTC: $2.7 billion in disgorgement and penalties from Binance and $150 million from founder Changpeng Zhao. The CFTC said the global resolution totalled more than $4.3 billion, with some payments credited across agencies.
Treasury said that between August 2017 and October 2022 Binance processed more than 1.67 million trades between US persons and users in sanctioned jurisdictions. It also failed to report well over 100,000 suspicious transactions. The plea required Binance to cooperate with law enforcement, so a report that it would cooperate less drew immediate attention.
Zhao’s sentence, the pardon and the SEC case
Zhao pleaded guilty to failing to maintain an effective anti-money-laundering programme and stepped down as CEO. On 30 April 2024 a federal court in Seattle sentenced him to four months in prison and a $50 million fine. President Donald Trump pardoned him on 21 October 2025, according to the DOJ Office of the Pardon Attorney. CBS News reported the pardon on 23 October 2025. We cover other clemency cases in our report on crypto pardons.
The separate SEC lawsuit, filed on 5 June 2023, ended on 29 May 2025. The SEC and the defendants filed a joint stipulation to dismiss it with prejudice, and the Commission said it acted “as a policy matter” (SEC Litigation Release 26316). The pardon and the SEC dismissal did not cancel the corporate plea, the FinCEN monitorship or the CFTC consent order. For how these regimes fit together, see our guide to Binance regulation.
Corrections to our earlier version
An earlier version of this article said Binance had a market capitalisation of about $35 billion. Binance is privately held and has no public market capitalisation. The earlier version also gave Bitcoin’s price as “around $32,000”. Bitcoin actually closed at $62,258 on 8 July 2026 (Yahoo Finance daily data). It also quoted a “John Doe”, who does not exist, and suggested the change was linked to money-laundering probes into Binance, which the reports did not say. Those claims have been removed.
Why it matters and what to watch
- Speed of freezes. In hacks and scams, the first hours decide whether funds can be stopped. If courtesy freezes end, more requests will need court orders or treaty channels. Our explainer on why exchanges freeze withdrawals and accounts covers how freezes work from the user side.
- The monitorships. Watch whether the DOJ monitorship ends early, as Binance has sought, and whether FinCEN’s five-year monitorship continues unchanged.
- Licensing conflicts. The ADGM explanation shows how a global exchange’s home-regulator rules can clash with US requests. The same issue shapes Binance’s European plans, covered in our MiCA licence report.
Update, 28 October 2026: We could not find any public DOJ statement on the memo or any announced end to the monitorships as of this date. Bitcoin closed at $80,806 on 27 October 2026 (Yahoo Finance daily data).
Sources
- Reuters headline via TradingView, 8 July 2026
- Crypto Briefing, 8 July 2026
- Unchained, 9 July 2026
- Cryptopolitan, 9 July 2026
- crypto.news, 9 July 2026
- DOJ: Binance and CEO plead guilty, 21 November 2023
- US Treasury (FinCEN/OFAC), 21 November 2023
- CFTC release 8825-23, 21 November 2023
- DOJ Office of the Pardon Attorney, clemency grants
- SEC Litigation Release 26316, 29 May 2025
- Bitcoin prices: Yahoo Finance daily closing data (BTC-USD), retrieved 28 October 2026
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Explainer: Exchange Froze Withdrawals? What to Do When a Crypto Exchange Halts Withdrawals
How this article was made: first published on 8 July 2026 as an AI-assisted rewrite of a news report (original report by Reuters: TradingView News). On 28 October 2026 it was rewritten and expanded with AI assistance, and its facts and figures were checked against the primary sources linked above. How we work · Report an error
