Binance seeks Malaysian licence through talks with regulators
The exchange says discussions have lasted 10 months, but it has not identified the licence it wants as scrutiny continues over its peer-to-peer marketplace.
Binance has spent 10 months discussing a possible licensed return to Malaysia with the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) and Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), a company spokesperson told Bloomberg. The cryptocurrency exchange has not disclosed which type of licence it is pursuing.
The spokesperson said the talks concern whether a licensed business would be viable and how it could be structured to provide products and services to Malaysian customers. Binance was ordered out of the market more than five years ago.
In July 2021, the SC directed Binance to halt Malaysian operations after finding it was running an illegal digital asset exchange. The regulator also required an end to media and marketing activities and restrictions on Malaysian investors’ access to its Telegram group. Binance was taken off the SC’s Investor Alert List in 2024 but subsequently reinstated without an explanation, Bloomberg reported.
Its peer-to-peer trading service has also drawn questions from former finance minister and DAP chairman Lim Guan Eng. In September, he asked the SC to examine whether advertisements denominated in other currencies were enabling ringgit transactions. His office circulated the letter on 31 October 2026, citing a security breach recently disclosed by Binance.
Binance said it voluntarily disabled a Papua New Guinea kina marketplace that had been unofficially linked to the ringgit as part of its discussions with the SC. It also responded to a separate complaint about a non-Malaysian user’s advertisement in its Romanian leu marketplace.
The exchange described that advertisement as an isolated case, denied that other products acted as ringgit substitutes and rejected suggestions of a sustained attempt to evade Malaysian law.
