Two employees of the giant cryptocurrency exchange Binance were detained in the United Arab Emirates in recent weeks, amid police inquiries into possible financial crimes on the platform, according to four people with knowledge of the matter.
The detentions were an unusually aggressive step and are an indication that Binance has faced serious legal pressure in the Emirates, which is the home of the company’s main regulator. Binance has at times struggled to stop criminals from using its platform, where people can convert traditional currencies into digital coins, and has faced scrutiny from law enforcement agencies worldwide.
The two Binance employees were stopped at airports in the Emirates, said two of the people with knowledge of the situation, who requested anonymity to discuss a sensitive legal issue. One of the employees was a midlevel staff member who was traveling through the Emirati city of Sharjah this month when he was stopped, taken to a police station and held overnight, the people said. A third Binance official, a leader of the company’s Dubai-based subsidiary, was questioned at a police station in July.
Customers can use Binance to quickly move money across borders, which has sometimes made the exchange a helpful conduit for bad actors. Every year, the company receives tens of thousands of inquiries from law enforcement agents investigating funds that move through the exchange.
It is unclear exactly what the authorities in the Emirates were investigating. But the detentions have shaken Binance’s work force, the people said. In communications this month with the Emirati government, the company said that the employees were swept up in fraud inquiries focused on customers and that none of the workers were connected to the underlying offenses.
“A small number of our personnel were recently asked to provide standard statements to local authorities as part of routine inquiries relating to third-party fund flows,” a Binance spokesman said in a statement. “Our employees were never the targets or subjects of these inquiries, and all who provided statements were promptly cleared and released.”
Representatives for the Dubai authorities and the Emirati Ministry of Interior did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Binance has had a troubled history with law enforcement. In 2023, the company pleaded guilty to violating anti-money-laundering laws in the United States with compliance failures that allowed scammers, hackers and sanctions evaders to move money on the platform. Binance paid $4.3 billion in fines and restitution to settle the charges and its founder, Changpeng Zhao, served a four-month sentence in federal prison.
Since then, Binance has trumpeted its cooperation with law enforcement around the world. Last year, the company forged a business relationship with World Liberty Financial, the Trump family’s crypto firm. President Trump pardoned Mr. Zhao in October, paving the way for Binance to seek licenses to operate in the United States.
In the past year, Binance has deepened its ties to the Emirates. A state-backed Emirati venture fund, MGX, invested $2 billion in the company in March 2025. In December, Binance announced it had received a suite of licenses to operate in Abu Dhabi, the Emirati capital.
But the company has continued to face issues with global law enforcement. Not long after the exchange’s U.S. settlement, a Binance compliance official was arrested in Nigeria and held for months before being released with the help of diplomatic pressure from the United States.
Late last year, Binance fired or suspended several of its top compliance officials after they told the company that billions of dollars had moved from customer accounts to entities linked to Iran. The episode prompted an inquiry by the U.S. Justice Department. Binance has disputed the employees’ findings and denied that any of them were disciplined for voicing compliance concerns.
Last year, the company also changed how it responds to certain law enforcement requests, requiring some agencies to jump through more hoops. The new process has frustrated investigators in Europe, who have said that the company has made it harder to obtain information about possible crimes, The New York Times reported last month.
The detentions in the Emirates have frustrated Binance officials, two people with knowledge of the matter said. This month, the company contacted officials in the Emirati government to seek assistance and express concerns about the safety of its employees, one of the people said.
Some employees appear to have been targeted because they were listed on a corporate bank account that Binance maintains in the Emirates, the person said. The company uses the account to process withdrawals and deposits by Binance customers.
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