Main Points :
- Noah Perlman’s journey from federal prosecutor to Binance Chief Compliance Officer (CCO)
- Embedding compliance as a core business value: reporting to the CEO, strong institutional focus
- Balancing convenience and security via KYC, AI-driven risk scoring, and user education
- Public–private collaboration through the Beacon Network to freeze illicit crypto funds in real time
- Leveraging AI and big data in AML/CFT efforts, turning volume into detection advantage
- Key industry challenges: educational gaps and need for regulatory harmony across jurisdictions
- Expectation for Japan’s regulators to continue leading with clear frameworks
- Recent development: Binance joining Beacon Network and its implications for the industry
1. From the Prosecutor’s Office to Crypto Compliance — A Career Evolution
Noah Perlman built his early career as a U.S. federal prosecutor and legal advisor to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), followed by a long tenure at Morgan Stanley’s legal and compliance division. There, he participated in evaluating cryptocurrencies as emerging business opportunities, sparking a pivotal shift in his professional direction. This led him to serve as Chief Compliance Officer and COO at Gemini, and eventually resulted in his recruitment to Binance in 2023. He was drawn by Binance’s bold vision of establishing “the best compliance program in the industry” within the world’s largest crypto exchange. He felt it was a professionally rewarding challenge aligned with his objectives.
2. Embedding Compliance at the Heart of Governance
To foster a culture of compliance, Perlman emphasized four levers:
- His position as CCO reporting directly to the CEO and participating in the board demonstrates compliance as a top-tier governance priority.
- Frequent, company-wide discussion of compliance, with leadership—particularly the CEO—consistently addressing it in public forums and town halls.
- Significant resource allocation: approximately 1,200 compliance professionals globally.
- Comprehensive training and testing—even flowing upwards from staff to leadership—to ingrain compliance across all levels.
These steps illustrate how Binance seeks to institutionalize compliance as both strategic and cultural imperative.
3. Harmonizing Convenience with User Protection
Binance embraces a multi-pronged approach to safeguarding users while preserving platform usability:
- Strong KYC protocols and advanced transaction monitoring systems screen users effectively.
- User education initiatives aim to prevent scams preemptively.
- The “Beacon Network”—a real-time public–private alert system—allows immediate freezing of illicit funds by sharing flagged addresses across member platforms.
- AI-powered “dynamic risk scoring” continuously analyzes user behavior and assigns granular risk profiles to balance security and transactional ease.
4. Fighting Financial Crime with AI, Big Data, and Collaboration
Binance’s AML/CFT strategy combines proprietary technology and external vendor solutions. The sheer volume of transactions processed by the world’s largest exchange strengthens machine-learning models, enabling more accurate anomaly detection. AI assists at every stage—from identifying suspicious activity to deciding on intervention actions.
Public–private collaboration has materialized in the Beacon Network, launched by TRM Labs in August 2025. Using real-time intelligence sharing, Beacon enables exchanges, law enforcement, stablecoin issuers, and security researchers to jointly flag and intercept illicit crypto flows before they leave the blockchain. As a founding member, Binance leverages Beacon’s speed, transparency, and cross-industry response capacity to combat financial crime more proactively.
5. Industry Challenges: Education and Regulatory Cohesion
Perlman identifies two primary obstacles for the crypto industry:
- Education: Persistent misconceptions about cryptocurrencies require concerted efforts to promote accurate understanding.
- Regulatory Harmony: Regulatory fragmentation—varying rules on derivatives or coin definitions across countries—poses challenges. Industry players need coherent frameworks to maintain compliance and operational consistency.
Binance hopes Japan will continue to play a leadership role. Japan is credited with defining stablecoins in its legal framework at least two years before similar U.S. legislation, demonstrating regulatory foresight and clarity.
6. Latest Development: Beacon Network’s Real-Time Crime Response System
In August 2025, TRM Labs launched the Beacon Network, the first real-time crypto crime response network involving leading exchanges (Binance, Coinbase, Kraken), payment and stablecoin platforms, and law enforcement. This collaborative system allows:
- Verified partners to flag illicit addresses.
- Automatic propagation of intelligence across the network.
- Immediate alerts when flagged funds flow into participating platforms.
- Timely freezing or blocking of suspicious funds before withdrawal.
Binance’s role as a founding member underscores its commitment to security infrastructure and industry coordination.
7. Summary and Outlook
Noah Perlman’s leadership at Binance exemplifies how compliance can be integrated into crypto innovation rather than held in tension. By positioning compliance at the highest level of corporate governance, allocating substantial resources, and leveraging cutting-edge tech, Binance aims to cultivate trust.
Beacon Network marks a milestone in cross-industry collaboration—showing crypto can proactively mitigate financial crime without sacrificing innovation.
Looking ahead, the industry must address educational deficiencies and regulatory fragmentation. Continued leadership from forward-thinking jurisdictions like Japan will be vital.
