Which Countries Does Binance Restrict?

Binance publishes its blocked jurisdictions in its Terms of Use and a dedicated List of Prohibited Countries. The list mixes international sanctions, national bans, and markets the exchange left after regulators demanded licences it could not or would not obtain.

Here is how the fully restricted locations break down:

• Iran, North Korea, Syria, Cuba: Comprehensive OFAC and UN sanctions make it illegal for Binance to serve these jurisdictions, so accounts registered there are refused outright.
• Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk: The occupied regions of Ukraine fall under the sanctions programmes tied to the Russian invasion, and Binance blocks them even though the rest of Ukraine remains one of its busiest markets.
• United States: The global Binance.com platform refuses American residents, who are directed to Binance.US, a separate company with its own order books and a smaller product range.
• Canada: Binance wound down Canadian operations in May 2023 after provincial securities regulators introduced pre-registration requirements the exchange declined to accept.
• Netherlands: Dutch users lost access in July 2023 when Binance failed to obtain a virtual asset service provider registration from the central bank, and the exit has never been reversed.
• Russia: The exchange sold its entire Russian business to CommEX in September 2023 and no longer operates in the country in any form.

New sign-ups from the United Kingdom have also been closed since October 2023, when the FCA's financial promotions regime took effect and Binance lost its approved promoter. Existing UK accounts still work for spot trading, though derivatives remain off the menu and no Binance entity holds FCA authorisation.

Attempting to reach the platform through a VPN from any blocked jurisdiction breaches the Terms of Use. Detection can place an account in withdrawal-only mode or freeze it entirely, so a licensed local alternative is always the safer choice.

Why Binance Lost EU Access Under MiCA

Residents of the European Union lost normal access to Binance on 1 July. The Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, the EU rulebook known as MiCA, requires every exchange serving the bloc to hold a crypto-asset service provider licence from at least one member state, and Binance reached the deadline without one.

The collapse happened quickly. Binance filed its MiCA application with Greece's Hellenic Capital Market Commission in January, betting that a single Greek approval would passport across all 27 member states. Reuters reported in mid-June that the Greek regulator was preparing to reject the filing, and on 24 June the exchange withdrew the application rather than wait for a formal decision. Its old national registrations in France, Italy, Spain, and Poland carried no weight once MiCA's transition period expired.

The suspension changes daily use in concrete ways:

• New registrations: EU residents can no longer open a Binance account, and the block applies across every member state at once.
• Deposits and new orders: Fresh deposits and new spot trades are switched off, leaving accounts in a wind-down state rather than active trading mode.
• Earn and staking products: Yield features are unavailable to EU users while the exchange remains unlicensed in the bloc.
• Withdrawals: Funds stay accessible, and Binance has told European customers their assets remain safe to move to a wallet or a licensed platform at any time.

Rivals cleared the bar that Binance missed. Coinbase, Kraken, OKX, Crypto.com, and Bybit all hold CASP authorisations and now compete for departing customers, and our guide to the best MiCA-licensed crypto exchanges compares them in detail. Binance says it is staying in Europe and will apply again through another member state, so the lockout may prove temporary, but no timeline has been confirmed.

Binance Supported Countries

Outside the blocked regions, Binance reports more than 323 million registered users across over 100 countries, a figure it says covers roughly 43% of everyone holding crypto worldwide. Growth has tilted towards Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa as European access has narrowed.

Traffic data shows where activity concentrates. According to Similarweb, binance.com drew 38.2 million visits in May, led by South Korea at 10.49%, Ukraine at 6.42%, Brazil at 5.73%, Turkey at 4.71%, and Venezuela at 4.55%. The remaining 68% of visits spread across the rest of the world.

India illustrates how a closed market can reopen. Regulators blocked the platform in early 2024 for operating without registration, then allowed it back that August once Binance paid a penalty and registered with the Financial Intelligence Unit. Comparable licensing work now underpins access in Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, Bahrain, and the UAE.

Binance Licences and Regulation

Binance lists its authorisations on an official licences and registrations page, and the strongest permissions now sit in the Middle East and Asia rather than Europe.

These are the principal approvals behind the platform:

• Dubai (VARA): Binance FZE holds a full virtual asset service provider licence from the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority, covering exchange services, derivatives, broker-dealer activity, and lending for users in the Emirates.
• Abu Dhabi (ADGM): The FSRA granted a global licence across three regulated entities covering exchange, clearing, custody, and brokerage, and Binance.com began operating these regulated activities from Abu Dhabi in early January.
• Japan (JFSA): Binance Japan KK runs as a locally registered exchange under Financial Services Agency oversight, separate from the global platform.
• India (FIU-IND): Binance is registered as a reporting entity with the Financial Intelligence Unit, the registration that restored Indian access after the 2024 ban.
• Indonesia (Bappebti): The Tokocrypto subsidiary holds a physical crypto asset trader licence serving one of Southeast Asia's largest user bases.
• Thailand (SEC): The Gulf Binance joint venture operates under a digital asset operator licence granted by the Thai authorities.
• Bahrain (CBB): Binance Bahrain holds a category 4 licence from the Central Bank of Bahrain for crypto exchange and custody services.
• Kazakhstan (AFSA): The Astana Financial Services Authority authorises a regulated platform inside the Astana International Financial Centre.
• Australia (AUSTRAC): InvestbyBit, trading as Binance Australia, is registered as a digital currency exchange provider for spot services.

Does Binance Require KYC?

Yes, every Binance account must complete identity verification before trading, depositing, or withdrawing. Applicants submit a government-issued ID and pass a facial recognition check, and the declared country of residence decides whether onboarding proceeds at all.

A second tier, Verified Plus, adds proof of address and a further liveness check in exchange for higher fiat limits. Documents issued in a prohibited jurisdiction stop the process before any funds move, which is the point where the restricted list is enforced in practice.

Verification also feeds the Travel Rule, a global standard requiring exchanges to attach sender and recipient details to transfers above set thresholds. Users sending crypto to self-hosted wallets may be asked to prove they control the destination address.

Can I Use Binance in the US?

The global platform remains closed to American residents, who instead use Binance.US, an affiliated company running its own books under state money transmitter rules. Its supported states list shows current availability, and futures and other leveraged products are absent from the lineup.

The legal backdrop has shifted dramatically in Binance's favour. The SEC dropped its lawsuit against the company in May 2025, and President Trump pardoned founder Changpeng Zhao in October 2025, erasing the conviction tied to the exchange's $4.3 billion settlement with the US Department of Justice in 2023. Binance.US has since restored USD deposits and withdrawals and is exploring deeper banking partnerships, though the global platform has announced no return to the American market.

About Binance

Binance launched in July 2017, founded by Changpeng Zhao and Yi He, and grew into the largest crypto exchange by trading volume within a year of opening. Richard Teng has led the company as CEO since late 2023, and co-founder Yi He was elevated to co-CEO during the 300 million user milestone announcements last December.

The product range has pushed well past crypto trading this year. A direct stock trading service went live in June alongside bStocks, a tokenised US securities product, and the exchange reports more than $156 trillion in cumulative trading volume across all products. Our full Binance review covers fees, security, and features in depth.

Final Thoughts

The Binance restriction map used to be a story about sanctions and a handful of regulatory exits. It is now defined by the EU suspension, the first time the world's largest exchange has lost an entire developed region to a licensing failure rather than a ban.

Where Binance holds licences, access is deep and expanding, as the UAE, India, and Japan show. Where it lacks them, the exchange has proven willing to walk away, and Europe joins Canada and the Netherlands on that side of the ledger until a new MiCA application lands.

Anyone checking availability from a specific country should treat the official prohibited countries list and the licences page as the definitive records, because both have changed materially within the past year.