Binance.US Seeks $100 Million at $1 Billion Valuation in Comeback Push

Update 03:25 UTC: The talks reportedly began with a wider net.

A $1 Billion Target, Down From $4.5 Billion

Binance.US is seeking up to $100 million in a private funding round at a target valuation of roughly $1 billion, according to a person familiar with the confidential discussions. The Miami-headquartered exchange, founded in 2019 and operated separately from Binance.com, has not publicly confirmed the raise, and no final terms or investor commitments have been disclosed. If completed at that valuation, the round would price the company at about 22% of the $4.5 billion pre-money figure investors set in April 2022, when Binance.US closed a seed round of more than $200 million backed by Foundation Capital, RRE Ventures, Circle Ventures and asset manager VanEck. The markdown is stark even by the standards of a sector that has repriced sharply since the last cycle. It is also the first time the company has returned to outside investors since its enforcement-era troubles began. The exchange tried to raise $100 million once before, in 2021, a push that stalled as investors weighed regulatory exposure. The new effort lands in a different environment: dollar rails are open again, the federal cases have closed, and competition for US digital-asset customers has intensified, with Coinbase and Kraken holding established positions. Under chief executive Stephen Gregory, the former Gemini compliance head who took over in March 2026 after Norman Reed moved to an advisory role, the company has cut maker fees to zero and taker fees to 0.02%. Management has discussed expanding to all 50 states, applying for derivatives licenses, and building out perpetual futures, prediction markets and additional financial services. Gregory has set a goal of returning the platform to a 20% share of the US market, a level it last held at its 2022 peak. For a company rebuilding liquidity and distribution after more than two years of disruption, the proposed capital would fund that expansion, though the gap between a target valuation and a closed round stays wide until investors sign.

One named party has already stepped away from the round. According to the reporting, Trump-backed World Liberty Financial knew of the fundraising but decided against participating, despite existing ties in which Binance holds a large share of the USD1 stablecoin supply, roughly $4.7 billion of a $5.4 billion float per Arkham data cited in February. The capital search sits alongside concrete product plans: an application for designated contract market status from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, pitched for August, would open a route into event-based trading, while management is weighing the restoration of certain state money transmitter licenses and sourcing liquidity from outside providers, potentially including the global Binance exchange. The expansion is framed against rivals including Coinbase, Kraken, Robinhood and Gemini.

The fundraising push is unfolding while the Department of Justice reviews whether Binance has complied with the conditions of its 2023 settlement, according to the new reporting. The department required the exchange to strengthen its anti-money-laundering framework and to appoint an external compliance monitor under that agreement, and the compliance review is now running in parallel with Binance.US's search for capital. The same report also notes a detail behind the World Liberty Financial tie cited in the round: when Abu Dhabi state-backed investor MGX put $2 billion into Binance's global entity last year, USD1 served as the payment instrument. Whether the raise closes, and which investors take part, has not been disclosed.

Neither Binance.US nor World Liberty Financial has commented on the round: spokespeople for both companies declined to respond to requests for comment, according to the reporting published Oct. 15. The person familiar with the talks also cautioned that the raise's size, the valuation and the investor lineup could still shift as discussions progress, meaning the $100 million ask and the $1 billion target are provisional until final terms are agreed. The reporting adds context for the timing of the push: the US regulatory environment has turned more favorable for the industry, with established domestic exchanges broadening their product ranges and overseas operators moving quickly to expand their US businesses, a competitive squeeze Binance.US is attempting to counter with the new capital.

The talks reportedly began with a wider net. The new reporting states that Binance.US pitched the fundraising plan to World Liberty Financial, the crypto platform founded by President Trump and his sons, before the firm opted out of the round, a detail that places the approach as a direct solicitation rather than passive disclosure. The same account frames the prior USD1 connection around last year's $2 billion investment involving an entity tied to the United Arab Emirates royal court, a deal that drew scrutiny because the payment ran through a stablecoin issued by a platform linked to the Trump family. The source also stresses that the raise is still at the negotiation stage: final size, valuation and investor list are all undetermined.

SEC Suit, a $4.3 Billion Plea and a Pardon

The exchange's collapsed valuation traces directly to its regulatory record. In June 2023 the Securities and Exchange Commission sued BAM Trading, the operator of Binance.US, alongside Binance and founder Changpeng Zhao. Banking partners retreated, dollar deposit and withdrawal services were cut off, and trading activity contracted. US customers spent long stretches without straightforward dollar on-ramps. The SEC case ended in May 2025, when the parties jointly moved to dismiss it with prejudice, which bars any refiling. The global group's reckoning came earlier: in November 2023 Binance and its founder pleaded guilty to federal charges in a resolution with the Department of Justice exceeding $4.3 billion, as documented in the department's own announcement. Zhao stepped down as chief executive and served about four months; President Trump pardoned him in October 2025. On the operational side, Binance.US announced in February 2025 that dollar deposits and withdrawals had been restored through ACH transfers, its first step back into the traditional banking system. Zhao confirmed in February of this year that he remains the exchange's largest shareholder while describing himself as a passive investor, and Gregory has stressed that Binance.US runs its own governance structure, sharing only its ultimate beneficial owner and brand with Binance.com. The commercial damage is measurable: third-party index data placed the exchange's US market share near 20% at its 2022 peak and close to zero by April 2026, a fall that tracks the banking outage and the lawsuit closely. That history explains both the size of the ask and the discount embedded in the valuation. The round would be the company's first known external fundraising move since the SEC dismissal, the pardon and the restoration of dollar access, and its outcome will show whether institutional capital is willing to underwrite the rebuild at a fraction of the price it accepted in 2022.

No Lead Investor Named Yet

For our desk, the number that matters is the valuation haircut, not the raise itself. A $1 billion target tells us Binance.US and its bankers accept that the enforcement years erased most of the 2022 paper value and are testing appetite at a reset price rather than anchoring high. The open question is participation: a single unnamed source describes a target, the company has confirmed nothing, and no lead investor has been named. Investors will weigh the zero-maker-fee schedule and the derivatives licensing push against a market-share base close to zero. Retail users comparing venues during this rebuild can start with our beginner's guide to buying Bitcoin on Binance. Watch for a confirmed lead and whether the final valuation clears the $1 billion line.