Binance, the world’s largest exchange by trading volume, has confirmed that it is adding Know Your Customer (KYC) verification. Since launching in 2017, the platform has enabled traders to withdraw up to 2 BTC per day with only email confirmation. Binance recently partnered with blockchain forensic specialists Chainalysis, however, making it clear that a transition to full KYC was likely to follow.
This week, Binance CFO Wei Zhou spoke of the need to introduce compliance as part of the platform’s global expansion efforts. Refinitiv, a division of Thomson Reuters, has now been handed the task of administering KYC on behalf of the cryptocurrency exchange. With even so-called decentralized exchanges now moving to a full compliance model, the era of anonymous cryptocurrency trading may be coming to an end.