The Justice Department alerted its attorneys in early June that Binance would limit or change elements of its cooperation with prosecutors handling digital currency investigations, according to an internal memo circulated within the department. The communication was authored by Rachel Jones, the department’s digital currency counsel, and addressed to prosecutors working on crypto-related cases.
The memo indicated Binance planned to impose new requirements on prosecutors seeking to freeze or seize assets on the exchange. The message was also copied to senior prosecutors, including Kevin Mosley, who led the department’s 2023 prosecution of Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao on charges of money laundering and violations of the Bank Secrecy Act.
A spokesperson for Binance responded to inquiries by denying the company had put into effect any new procedures described in the memo. In remarks provided to the media, the spokesperson said: "There has been and will be no change to Binance’s cooperation with U.S. law enforcement."
Binance previously entered a guilty plea in the 2023 matter and agreed to a $4.3 billion settlement with U.S. authorities. As part of the post-plea context described in the memo, the exchange had been assisting U.S. law enforcement efforts to trace, freeze and seize illicit cryptocurrency flows. That cooperation included work on transactions tied to sanctions violations and so-called pig-butchering schemes. The department’s plea agreement obligated Binance to "cooperate fully" with both domestic and foreign law enforcement agencies.
The memo and Binance’s reported new stance come against a backdrop of shifting policy and enforcement signals. The article notes that President Donald Trump issued a pardon to Changpeng Zhao in October 2025. That action occurred months after then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche circulated a departmentwide memo instructing staff to stop what Blanche described as "regulation by enforcement" with respect to the crypto industry.
Commenting on the potential operational impact of Binance’s reported changes, Scott Armstrong, a former assistant chief in the Justice Department’s fraud section, warned the move would impose "an additional and quite frankly unnecessary hurdle that is going to cause a lot of problems in the law enforcement community."
Context limitations: The reporting reflects the contents of the internal Justice Department memo and public statements attributed to the parties. It does not provide information beyond the memo’s assertions or any implementation actions not addressed by Binance’s public denial.