For the first time in its history, the industry is showing that large-scale crypto trading can operate with almost no exposure to criminal activity.
Key Takeaways:
Illicit activity on major centralized exchanges has fallen to near-zero levels.
Binance records the lowest illicit transaction rate in the industry despite handling the largest trading volume.
The sharp decline is linked to heavy investment in compliance, monitoring tech, and law-enforcement collaboration.
A new analysis commissioned by Binance, using independent datasets from Chainalysis and TRM Labs, suggests that the era of “crypto equals crime” is rapidly fading. The numbers indicate that most of the volume on big centralized exchanges now comes from legitimate users rather than malicious actors — a dramatic turnaround from just two years ago.
Illegal Transactions Become Statistical Rounding Errors
The report shows that across the seven biggest exchanges, the share of trading volume tied to illicit sources in June 2025 hovered around 0.018%–0.023%. To put that into perspective: more than 99.97% of global exchange activity is now clean.
The standout performer is Binance.
Chainalysis estimates the platform’s illicit volume at 0.007%, while TRM places it at 0.016% — both well below the industry average. What makes this notable is scale: Binance processes volumes comparable to its six largest competitors combined, yet maintains the lowest illicit exposure.
The Cleanup Wasn’t Accidental
The findings attribute the turnaround to a coordinated industry overhaul rather than natural market evolution. Binance alone has:
• Built a compliance and risk division of 1,280+ specialists (about 22% of its total workforce)
• Invested hundreds of millions of dollars per year into automated monitoring and KYC technologies
• Responded to 240,000+ law-enforcement requests and led 400+ training programs globally
• Joined multi-exchange enforcement initiatives, including Beacon Network and T3+ with TRON, Tether, and TRM Labs
Chainalysis and TRM both show that from January 2023 to June 2025, illicit exposure on Binance fell by 96–98%, outpacing improvements across the rest of the sector.
When Compared to Traditional Finance, the Contrast Is Stark
The researchers also place crypto security in context rather than in isolation. Traditional financial systems continue to facilitate trillions in illicit flows every year — most of it untraceable. By contrast, criminal usage in centralized crypto exchanges sits in the low billions and is shrinking quarter by quarter.
The reason is simple: blockchain’s public accounting system leaves no dark corners. Investigators can follow money on-chain with precision that banking infrastructures simply cannot offer.
The Bigger Picture
For years, critics argued that crypto would never scale unless it sacrificed safety. The latest data flips that theory on its head. Liquidity, institutional adoption, and regulatory oversight are all increasing — while illicit participation is collapsing to near-irrelevance.
Whether prices are up or down, the numbers show something deeper: crypto has entered a phase where compliance is not a checkbox, but a competitive advantage.
