On September 22, 2019, Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by daily trading volume, made its long-anticipated return to the United States market with the launch of Binance.US. The dedicated fiat-to-crypto trading platform represented a carefully structured effort to serve American customers while navigating the complex web of U.S. cryptocurrency regulations.
TL;DR
- Binance.US launched on September 22, 2019, as a regulation-compliant platform for U.S. customers
- The platform offered free trading until November 1, 2019
- 13 U.S. states were excluded from the initial rollout, including New York, Texas, and Florida
- Supported trading pairs included BTC, ETH, XRP, BCH, LTC, USDT, and BNB
- BAM Trading oversees both Binance and Binance.US, registered with FinCEN
Building a Compliant Platform
The road to Binance.US began in June 2019, when the parent company announced it would block U.S. citizens from accessing its global trading platform. The decision was driven by increasing regulatory scrutiny of cryptocurrency exchanges operating in the United States without proper licensing. Rather than abandoning the lucrative American market, Binance chose to build a separate, fully compliant entity.
BAM Trading Services, which oversees both Binance and the U.S. subsidiary, registered with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) of the U.S. Treasury Department. The company continued working toward state-level regulatory compliance, a process that varies significantly from state to state and can take months or even years to complete.
Binance.US CEO Catherine Coley framed the launch as just the beginning. In a blog post accompanying the announcement, she emphasized the company’s mission to bring access to users across all states, even those currently excluded. The platform planned to roll out additional batches of cryptocurrencies that meet U.S. regulations based on its Digital Asset Risk Assessment Framework.
State-by-State Challenges
The exclusion of 13 states from Binance.US operations highlighted the fragmented nature of U.S. cryptocurrency regulation. Alabama, Alaska, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Louisiana, New York, North Carolina, Texas, Vermont, and Washington were all left out of the initial rollout.
New York presents perhaps the most formidable regulatory barrier in the country. Cryptocurrency companies operating in the state must obtain a BitLicense from the New York Department of Financial Services, a process that has proven notoriously difficult and expensive. Several major exchanges have opted to simply avoid the state rather than pursue the license.
Trading Features and Incentives
For users in eligible states, Binance.US offered a full suite of exchange services, including deposits, withdrawals, trading, and wallet storage. The platform supported seven cryptocurrencies at launch: bitcoin, ether, XRP, bitcoin cash, litecoin, tether, and binance coin. To encourage adoption, Binance.US offered free trading through November 1, 2019.
The timing was notable. Bitcoin was trading around $10,070 when Binance.US launched, and the broader crypto market was watching closely to see how the new platform would compete with established U.S. exchanges like Coinbase and Kraken. The combination of Binance’s global brand recognition and a compliant domestic structure gave the platform a unique positioning in an increasingly crowded market.
Why This Matters
The launch of Binance.US underscored a fundamental shift in the cryptocurrency industry’s relationship with regulation. The world’s largest exchange, which had built its dominance partly through a permissive approach to compliance, was now investing significant resources into building a regulation-friendly platform. This signaled to the broader market that regulatory compliance was no longer optional for any exchange seeking to serve U.S. customers. Binance.US would go on to become a major player in the American crypto landscape, though not without further regulatory challenges. The September 2019 launch marked the beginning of a new chapter in the ongoing tension between cryptocurrency innovation and government oversight.
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