Cryptocurrency exchanges have spent over a decade bringing users from all over the world together. Now, American financial institutions and dollar products are using these established connections to enter more people's accounts.

Written by: Liu Honglin

On November 6, the U.S. Treasury Department took action against another cryptocurrency exchange. This time, the one named is MEXC, also known as Matcha.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) under the U.S. Treasury issued an order prohibiting U.S. financial institutions from conducting fund transfers involving MEXC. According to the official announcement, the U.S. has determined that this platform processed at least $16 billion in funds related to sanctions evasion, cybercrime, and more from May 2021 to May 2026, involving Iran, North Korea, and Russia.

This order will take effect 30 days after its publication in the Federal Register. MEXC subsequently responded that its deposit and withdrawal and trading are normal, and it is reviewing the order and preparing to communicate with regulators. However, the conditions set by the U.S. are already quite direct. Treasury Secretary Yellen has framed the choice between continuing to access the U.S. financial system and supporting the Iranian regime in a binary manner.

FinCEN official announcement, November 6, 2026

When I saw this news, I thought of the situation of exchange owners over the past few years. The platforms have reached a global scale, with users spread across various countries, and registration locations can be changed repeatedly. But when a business grows large enough, it ultimately must seriously address the questions raised by the United States.

To some extent, the U.S. is effectively consolidating global cryptocurrency exchanges. Those willing to engage can discuss investments, cooperation, and entry into the U.S. market. Those unwilling or unable to accept related conditions may face investigations, lawsuits, and the consequences of having their financial channels cut off.

For exchanges that still want to serve mainstream global funds, the cost of remaining outside this system is becoming increasingly high.

Submission faction, look at Binance

Understanding Binance today starts with November 2023.

That month, Binance reached a criminal and related law enforcement resolution with the U.S. Department of Justice, agreeing to pay over $4.3 billion. Zhao Changpeng pleaded guilty and resigned from his position as CEO. A platform that occupies an important position in the global cryptocurrency market ultimately had to deal with its past operations within the U.S. legal framework.

The issues pursued by the U.S. are very specific. The platform served U.S. users but did not fulfill corresponding anti-money laundering obligations and was involved in violations under U.S. sanctions rules.

More noteworthy than the fine are the operational conditions attached to the settlement. Under the arrangements announced by the U.S. Treasury Department at the time, Binance must undergo five years of compliance supervision, allowing regulators to access its books, records, and systems through monitors and check the fulfillment of commitments, such as exiting the U.S. market.

For the exchange, this will directly change how it makes money. If the platform wants to continue operating, it must allow its growth team to accept that the compliance department has the authority to intercept certain revenues.

However, Binance's subsequent actions also indicate that the owners do not intend to remain on the page of just paying fines forever.

In December 2024, Binance announced a strategic cooperation with Circle, the issuer of the U.S. dollar stablecoin USDC. Binance will expand the use of USDC in transactions, payments, and other products and incorporate USDC into the company's fund management. Circle will provide technology, liquidity, and other support. A cryptocurrency exchange aimed at global users is starting to jointly grow the on-chain dollar business with an American stablecoin company.

By 2025, Binance also received a $2 billion minority stake investment from Abu Dhabi investment agency MGX. In May of the same year, the co-founder of World Liberty Financial announced at an event in Dubai that this investment chose to settle using the USD1 stablecoin issued by the project. World Liberty Financial is related to the Trump family, linking this Middle Eastern capital's investment in the exchange to the participation of American political families in the cryptocurrency business.

The money came from an Abu Dhabi institution, with the settlement tool from a project involving the Trump family, allowing the exchange to secure financing while the stablecoin gained substantial application scenarios. Each participant has its own commercial interests, further tightening their business connections.

In October 2025, Zhao Changpeng received a presidential pardon from Trump.

The pardon document relates to Zhao Changpeng's individual federal crimes. We can see that the relationship between the exchange's founder and the U.S. will be established through law enforcement but will continue to develop through business interests and political contacts.

所谓「归顺」，往往就在这些具体安排中完成。公司继续经营，创始人继续寻找发展机会，而美国的合规要求、商业伙伴和美元产品，越来越深地进入交易所的日常业务。

OKX obtains a ticket to Wall Street

While Binance chose to expand cooperation with U.S. stablecoin companies, OKX went a step further by inviting U.S. financial institutions into its shareholders and board of directors.

On March 5, 2026, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, announced its investment in OKX, corresponding to a valuation of $25 billion. The announcement did not disclose the specific investment amount but clearly mentioned that ICE would secure a seat on OKX's board.

Official press release from Intercontinental Exchange regarding investment in OKX, March 5, 2026

A board seat allows collaboration to enter corporate governance and operational discussions. For OKX, this new partner also possesses mature regulated markets, institutional clients, and financial product resources. The global users accumulated by the platform now have the opportunity to access more traditional financial assets.

OKX has built up a user base, wallet, and trading infrastructure for cryptocurrencies, while ICE possesses the products and institutional resources of the U.S. financial market. After cooperating, the former can expand its products, and the latter can reach previously uncovered investors through the cryptocurrency platform. U.S. financial institutions thus have the opportunity to leverage a global exchange to present their market to users in more countries.

The plans announced by both parties are very clear. ICE will obtain a license for OKX's spot cryptocurrency price data to launch regulated futures products in the U.S. After receiving regulatory approval, OKX plans to provide its users with access to ICE's U.S. futures and tokenized stock markets on the New York Stock Exchange.

However, OKX also first dealt with law enforcement issues in the U.S. before reaching this point.

U.S. prosecutors revealed that although the OKX platform restricted U.S. users in policy, it still attracted and served U.S. clients, with some employees even guiding clients to fill out false information to bypass identity verification. In February 2025, Aux Cayes FinTech, which operates OKX, pleaded guilty and agreed to pay more than $504 million in fines. According to the plea agreement, its independent compliance advisor's arrangement continues until at least February 2027.

Garantex rebrands, U.S. continues sanctions

Of course, there will always be two paths in the forest, and some will choose the less traveled one.

This pressure has been ongoing for the Russian exchange Garantex for several years. In April 2022, the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) added Garantex to its sanctions list. This department is responsible for enforcing U.S. economic sanctions. After being placed on the list, Garantex continued to operate, and the platform and related personnel continued to face investigations.

Even if an overseas exchange does not open a store in the U.S., it may still need connections with U.S. banks, payment services, or other regulated institutions. The U.S. controls these institutions, which can influence the conditions of exchanges' transactions with external funds. Overseas partners that still need to retain their U.S. operations may also consider whether to continue bearing the costs associated with cooperating with the named platform.

In March 2025, the U.S. joined forces with Germany and Finland to seize the domain names and servers used by Garantex. The U.S. Department of Justice simultaneously announced lawsuits against related operators and disclosed the freezing of more than $26 million in related funds. The pressure faced by the exchange expanded from financial restrictions to website infrastructure, assets, and actual operators.

Seizure image of Garantex's website released by the U.S. Department of Justice, March 2025

Garantex subsequently attempted to transfer customers and funds. According to the U.S. Treasury's announcement in August 2025, its successor platform Grinex took over some of its business, and the arrangement also utilized the ruble-backed token A7A5. The U.S. continued to list Grinex and relevant personnel and enterprises under sanctions.

This experience illustrates that even after departing from the U.S.-dominated financial network, an exchange may still find customers and continue to process significant transactions. However, it needs to constantly seek new infrastructure and partnerships while enduring the next round of tracking and sanctions. The more a platform depends on such customers, the harder it will be to obtain the funding and services that mainstream financial institutions are willing to provide, thereby further limiting its business choices.

For an exchange that still wants to operate long-term, these are costs that must be calculated.

Once money is on the chain, can the U.S. still govern it?

Many people may think of an issue here. Since banks can cut off connections, can we just do crypto-to-crypto trading and keep all funds on the chain to reduce U.S. influence?

On March 7, 2025, Tether publicly stated that it had assisted the U.S. Secret Service in freezing $23 million related to transactions with Garantex. The USDT issued by Tether is a commonly used dollar stablecoin in the cryptocurrency market. Users, holding their wallet private keys, can initiate transactions independently, but the token contract also retains the issuer's management rights. If a specific address is frozen by the issuer, the related USDT in that address will face transfer restrictions.

As early as December 2023, Tether announced a voluntary wallet freezing policy, taking measures against activities related to individuals and entities designated by OFAC, including freezing wallets already on the list.

What does this mean for exchanges?

Platforms can be headquartered outside of the U.S. and may only accept crypto assets, but as long as their business relies heavily on centralized issuance of dollar stablecoins like USDT, they still need to consider the issuer's compliance policies and freezing capabilities.

Therefore, the U.S. influence on the cryptocurrency market already exists simultaneously in banks and on the chain. Banks decide which fund flows can be processed, stablecoin issuers determine how to execute freezes on their issued tokens, and trading platforms restrict accounts or transactions based on lists and risk policies.

Issuers can restrict the transfer of related tokens at specific addresses through contracts

The more exchanges hope to attract institutional clients and traditional financial products, the more they need to prove that they can identify these boundaries and execute these requirements. As a result, on-chain operations have also entered the scrutiny of mainstream financial partners.

The U.S. reaps the global customers of exchanges

Looking at Binance, OKX, MEXC, and Garantex together, I feel that the U.S. attitude towards exchanges has become increasingly understandable.

For illegal activities, the U.S. can investigate, prosecute, and punish. For platforms that can accept conditions and have commercial value, U.S. financial institutions are willing to invest and cooperate. The enforcement agencies, the president making pardon decisions, and private companies pursuing profits each have their own goals. Still, these actions combined make exchanges increasingly aware of U.S. rules and relationships.

Policies will of course change. The operating entity of BitMEX was fined $100 million in January 2025 for violating the Bank Secrecy Act, and in March of the same year, that entity and several founders again received a pardon from Trump. The U.S. facing the exchanges contains different enforcement judgments, political choices, and commercial interests. Consequently, the relationships that owners must manage extend to lawyers, regulators, financial partners, and the political environment.

This has also made “pro-American” a more realistic operational choice.

In the past, many exchanges could quickly acquire users by relying on loose account opening conditions, a wide range of tokens, and cross-border services. When the scale grows and requires more stable banking services, more attractive assets, and more institutional funds, the U.S.-dominated financial network will reappear in the next phase of development plans.

Global exchanges have completed user education, built trading and wallet infrastructure, and accumulated cross-border distribution capabilities. When U.S. financial institutions connect to these platforms, there is an opportunity for more overseas users to trade their products and utilize assets priced and settled in dollars.

For exchanges, this could be a worthwhile business. However, as revenues increasingly depend on these collaborations, platforms will actively filter clients, manage assets, and organize operations according to the acceptable ways of their partners. The influence of U.S. rules will thus expand along with products and funds beyond the United States.

Therefore, I say the U.S. is consolidating global cryptocurrency exchanges, and the most notable change is this one. Platforms willing to cooperate can share in the benefits of entering mainstream financial markets. Continuing to operate businesses excluded by the U.S. sanctions system will incur higher connection costs and enforcement pressures.

Cryptocurrency exchanges have spent over a decade bringing users from all over the world together. Now, American financial institutions and dollar products are using these established connections to enter more people's accounts.