Binance Blocks MEXC Transfers as US Treasury Cuts Exchange Off Over $16.7 Billion in Alleged Illicit Flows
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, said on Tuesday it will no longer process transfers involving rival exchange MEXC, just hours after the US Treasury’s order cutting MEXC off from the American financial system was published in the Federal Register.
The decision makes Binance the first major exchange to enforce the Treasury action on its own, four weeks before the US ban itself takes effect on December 10. It also turns a regulatory order aimed at American banks into an immediate, practical problem for MEXC users worldwide: the biggest crypto exchange on the planet will now refuse their money.
What Binance announced
In a notice published on Tuesday, November 10, Binance said it is applying enhanced compliance measures after the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, known as FinCEN, designated MEXC a primary money laundering concern.
“Effective immediately, users should not send funds to, receive funds from, or otherwise transact through Binance involving MEXC, MEXC Global, MEXC affiliates or related entities,” Binance said in the announcement.
Under the policy, any request to send funds from a Binance account to MEXC or its listed affiliates will be declined. Deposits arriving from MEXC will be temporarily withheld while Binance runs a compliance review, and accounts flagged in that review can be restricted or removed from the platform. The restrictions cover direct transfers and indirect ones routed through intermediary wallets.
Binance’s notice lists 13 MEXC entities, including MEXC Global Limited, MEXC Estonia, GIDA Technology in Switzerland, MEXC Singapore and MEXC (Comoros) Ltd. One of those names, the Comoros entity, does not appear in FinCEN’s order at all, according to a comparison of the two documents by Unchained — a sign that Binance went further than the US order requires. FinCEN’s order states that its reach is not limited to the entities it names.
Crypto news site AirdropAlert reported in a live update on Tuesday that OKX has also moved to block MEXC transfers, suggesting the industry cutoff may widen beyond Binance in the coming days.
The Treasury order behind the move
FinCEN issued its order on Friday, November 6, under Section 9714(a) of the Combating Russian Money Laundering Act, a law that gives the Treasury a fast route to sever a foreign financial institution from the US dollar system without a court order. The order was published in the Federal Register on Tuesday, November 10, as 91 FR 72420, starting a 30-day clock that ends on December 10, 2026. It has no expiration date.
From that date, every covered US financial institution — banks, money transmitters, brokers and US-regulated crypto exchanges — will be prohibited from sending or receiving any funds involving MEXC Global. The ban covers cryptocurrency transactions as well as traditional wire transfers.
FinCEN alleges that MEXC Global, a Seychelles-based exchange founded in 2018, facilitated at least $16.7 billion in transactions connected to illicit finance between May 2021 and May 2026. The Treasury’s own press release rounds the figure to at least $16 billion. The findings, according to the order, rest on blockchain analysis and non-public information.
The breakdown FinCEN published is specific. Nearly $1.5 billion of the total is tied to Russian sanctions evasion, including $232 million in direct transactions with entities sanctioned by the United States, the European Union or the United Kingdom. About $1 billion moved in direct transactions with more than 40 Iranian cryptocurrency exchangers, some of them sanctioned. At least $226 million was connected to the A7 sanctions-evasion network, a Russia-based operation already designated by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, including nearly $200 million linked to the A7A5 stablecoin the network uses to move value around sanctions.
The most damaging allegation concerns Garantex, a Russia-backed exchange the US sanctioned in April 2022. FinCEN says MEXC processed about $129 million with Garantex and $4.1 million with Grinex, a successor set up by Garantex employees, as recently as June 2026 — more than four years after the designation.
FinCEN described MEXC’s anti-money laundering and customer-identification controls as severely deficient, and said the exchange had continued processing transactions with sanctioned entities despite publicly claiming strong compliance controls.
What the order does — and does not — do
The action is not an OFAC sanctions designation, and that distinction matters. MEXC has not been added to the Treasury’s list of blocked persons. No MEXC wallets were blacklisted, no user funds were frozen by the US government, and American users are not ordered to move their money.
What the order does is cut off the exchange’s access to the dollar rails. Once it takes effect, no US financial institution may process a transfer to or from MEXC Global, which covers MEXC Global Ltd and MX Global Ltd in the Seychelles, MEXC Estonia, GIDA Technology in Switzerland and MXC Global in the United Kingdom, along with successor entities.
MEXC is one of the 20 largest crypto exchanges in the world by trading volume, processing more than $1 billion in daily transactions and reporting about 40 million users across more than 170 countries, according to FinCEN. As of December 2025 it held about 9 percent of the global market share among centralized exchanges, and it reports roughly $5 billion in reserve assets.
In a statement carried by BleepingComputer, MEXC said it is aware of the order and reviewing it closely with its legal and compliance teams. “MEXC is operating normally, and user assets remain secure,” the company said, adding that it has launched an independent review of its sanctions and anti-money laundering controls.
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Why Binance moved first
Binance’s speed is striking, but it has a reason to be cautious. In 2023 the company pleaded guilty to US charges that included Iran sanctions violations and paid about $4.3 billion in penalties, one of the largest corporate settlements in American history. Its notice effectively treats the FinCEN order as binding on Binance itself even though the order, by its terms, applies only to US institutions.
There is also a question hanging over the Treasury’s headline number. ZachXBT, a widely followed independent investigator who traces crypto hacks, agreed that MEXC’s customer checks have long been loose — but questioned how the Treasury arrived at $16.7 billion, noting that the order offers no breakdown that adds up to the total. The figures are FinCEN’s allegations, drawn in part from information the agency has not made public, and they have not been tested in court. MEXC has not been convicted of anything, and the order itself is an administrative measure, not a criminal charge.
Even so, the enforcement pattern is now unmistakable. The MEXC action is the third major exchange-level move under Operation Economic Outcast, the Treasury’s campaign against crypto platforms it says serve sanctioned regimes. In June 2026, OFAC sanctioned Nobitex and other major Iranian exchanges. In August, it added Aban Tether and Iran-linked platforms. On the same day as the MEXC announcement, the Treasury also sanctioned eight Canadian money services businesses accused of helping move funds linked to Iranian entities and sanctioned crypto exchanges.
Why this matters
For American crypto users, the practical effect arrives on December 10. From that day, US banks, brokers and payment firms must refuse any transfer to or from MEXC, and anyone holding funds on the exchange will have a harder time moving them into the American financial system. Binance’s move makes that cutoff real a month early for anyone who uses the world’s largest exchange as an on-ramp or off-ramp.
For the crypto industry, the case sets a precedent. Section 9714 lets FinCEN cut off a foreign platform’s dollar access with no court order, no asset freeze and no individual designation — a lower legal bar than a full OFAC sanctions listing. Other platforms with weak compliance controls will be watching closely.
The timing also matters for markets. Bitcoin fell below $73,000 for the first time since August on Tuesday, after a hotter-than-expected October inflation report pushed traders to price in a near-certain Federal Reserve rate hike in December, and the MEXC crackdown adds a regulatory overhang to a market already under pressure.
The same week the Treasury moved against MEXC, the NYSE picked Avalanche to settle tokenized stocks on a 24/7 platform — a sign that regulated American institutions are pushing deeper into crypto even as enforcement against offshore platforms intensifies.
Latest developments
FinCEN’s order takes effect on December 10, 2026, thirty days after its publication in the Federal Register. Binance’s restrictions are already in force. MEXC says it is operating normally while it reviews the order, and it has not said whether it will challenge the action in court.
The Treasury has not said whether more exchanges are under review as part of Operation Economic Outcast, but officials have described the campaign as ongoing. Traders will be watching for the next name — and for whether other major platforms follow Binance’s lead before December 10.
Frequently asked questions
What did the US Treasury accuse MEXC of?
FinCEN alleges MEXC Global facilitated at least $16.7 billion in transactions linked to illicit finance between May 2021 and May 2026, including Russian sanctions evasion, Iranian and North Korean sanctions evasion, ransomware and scam payments, and darknet market activity. The figures are allegations in an administrative order, not findings from a court case.
When does the US ban on MEXC take effect?
The FinCEN order was published in the Federal Register on November 10, 2026, and takes effect 30 days later, on December 10, 2026. It has no end date. From that day, US financial institutions may not send or receive funds involving MEXC Global.
What has Binance done about MEXC?
Binance announced on November 10 that it will immediately decline withdrawals to MEXC and its listed affiliates, withhold incoming deposits from MEXC for compliance review, and potentially restrict or close accounts that transact with the exchange. The move takes effect a month before the US ban itself becomes enforceable.
Are MEXC user funds frozen?
No. The FinCEN order does not freeze user assets, blacklist wallets or add MEXC to the OFAC sanctions list. It prohibits US financial institutions from processing transfers to or from the exchange. MEXC says it is operating normally and that user assets remain secure.
What to watch next
The December 10 effective date is the next milestone, when US banks and payment firms must begin refusing MEXC transfers. Before then, watch whether other major exchanges follow Binance, whether MEXC mounts a legal challenge, and whether the Treasury names further targets. For American users with funds on MEXC, the practical message from Binance is already clear: do not send money to or from the exchange through Binance, and expect any transfer that touches MEXC to be stopped or held.
Sources: US Treasury / FinCEN press release (Nov 6, 2026); BleepingComputer; Decrypt; Unchained; PlainBTC. Federal Register 91 FR 72420.
