Binance tightens market maker rules and forces token projects to name partners

• Binance now wants token projects to disclose the identity of their market maker, the legal entity behind it and the core contract terms.
• The exchange is also banning profit-sharing and guaranteed-return arrangements, while requiring token lending deals to spell out exactly how borrowed supply can be used.

Binance is cracking down on one of the murkier parts of the listing game: the relationship between token projects and the firms hired to make markets around them.

Binance wants more visibility into who is supporting liquidity

Under the updated rules, projects will have to tell Binance who their market maker is, which legal entity is actually providing the service and what the contract looks like. That includes the basic commercial setup, not just a vague assurance that a liquidity partner exists somewhere behind the scenes.

The move matters because market makers sit at the center of how many newly listed tokens trade in their first days and weeks. They can stabilize spreads, support order books and reduce slippage.

But they can also become part of the problem if incentives are misaligned or if the arrangement is being used to dress up weak liquidity as organic demand.

In other words, Binance is trying to pull this part of token market structure out of the shadows and into something closer to listing compliance.

Profit-sharing is out, token loan terms must be explicit

The exchange is also drawing harder lines around what kinds of deals are no longer acceptable. Profit-sharing arrangements and guaranteed-return structures are now off the table.

Binance said those models can create incentives that work against fair trading, which is a fairly direct way of saying they may encourage behavior that looks more like engineered price support than neutral liquidity provision.

Token lending agreements are getting more scrutiny too. If a project lends tokens to a market maker, the contract now has to clearly state how that borrowed inventory can be used.

That is an important change in crypto terms. Borrowed supply can end up shaping early price action, and if the use of those tokens is loosely defined, the line between market making and aggressive sell pressure can get blurry fast.

The broader message is not hard to read. Binance wants projects to stop treating market maker relationships as informal side arrangements. For listed tokens, those partnerships are now being treated more like a regulated piece of exchange infrastructure.