You paste the address, pick the network, hit Withdraw—and instead of a verification code you get questions. Are you sending to yourself or someone else? Is the recipient a person or a company, and what is their name? Is the address on an exchange or in a private wallet? Some regions also ask for the purpose of the transfer and a tick-box declaration.
This is a Travel Rule questionnaire. Strip away the wording and it asks two things: who receives the funds, and where they are going. Answer truthfully; a missing or invented answer can hold the withdrawal and put restrictions on the account.
- Who receives it
- You, or another person or company: name and country
- Where it goes
- An exchange you pick from a list, or a private wallet you may have to verify
- Regional extras
- Purpose, city, tax ID and a declaration
Why some accounts get the questionnaire and others don’t
The Travel Rule is an anti-money-laundering requirement: when a crypto service sends funds to another institution, information about the sender and the recipient travels with the transfer, much as a bank wire carries both account holders’ names. Each country writes it into its own law, so whether you see the questionnaire depends on which local Binance entity holds your account—not on the coin you’re sending.
Binance’s developer page “Withdraw Questionnaire Content” (opened 23 October 2026, marked as updated the same day) lists ten regional versions: Japan, Kazakhstan, New Zealand, Bahrain, the UAE, India, the EU (one form for every EU country, with Poland and France as the examples), South Africa, Australia and Brazil. If your account sits with one of those local entities, the questionnaire is a normal step, not a sign something is wrong.
Not seeing your country there doesn’t guarantee you never will. The page is written for API developers; Binance’s consumer help centre doesn’t publish an equally complete list, and more jurisdictions keep adding rules.
How to fill in the withdrawal questionnaire
The wording varies by region but the skeleton is shared. These are the fields as the documentation defines them; the labels in the app may be phrased differently.
- Myself or another beneficiary. If you control the destination—your account on another exchange, a wallet whose recovery phrase you hold—choose yourself. In most versions that skips the recipient name and country.
- Individual or company. A company recipient needs the company name and its country in the EU, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia versions.
- Recipient name and country. Required when sending to someone else. Use the full legal name the recipient verified with on the receiving platform—not a nickname or username. Japan asks for kanji, katakana and Latin spellings.
- Exchange or private wallet. For an exchange, choose the receiving platform from the list; several versions let you pick “others” and type the name, Brazil’s does not. Binance Japan defines unhosted wallets as “wallets managed by the user, not by the VASP”.
- Purpose. Asked in Japan and Kazakhstan, and in Brazil for cross-border transfers. Kazakhstan offers service, goods, P2P, charity and others (with a description).
- Declaration. Most versions end with a box confirming the answers are accurate.
The regional differences most likely to trip you up:
| Region | Extra fields | Limit worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Japan | Recipient city, country of the receiving platform, purpose | “Cross-border trade” is a listed purpose but Binance Japan rejects it |
| Brazil | Possibly a tax ID for other recipients (CPF for individuals, CNPJ for companies in Brazil; a separate field for foreign ones); a purpose code for cross-border transfers | Cross-border withdrawals above USD 100,000 equivalent per transaction are blocked; self-hosted wallets and transfers within Brazil are exempt |
| Bahrain | Country and city on every withdrawal, even to yourself | — |
| UAE, India | Name and country for other recipients; the UAE also wants a city, India’s is optional | — |
| Australia | Country and city chosen from a system list rather than typed | — |
All of it comes from the same developer page.
Sending to your own wallet: proving the address is yours
Choosing “myself” and “private wallet” sometimes leads to one more step. Saying the wallet is yours isn’t evidence; some regulators want proof the platform can check.
OKX’s “Travel Rule FAQ (EEA region)” (updated 21 October 2026) is the most specific. For withdrawals of €1,000 or more, you complete whatever wallet-control check the flow asks for. A digital signature—connect the wallet that controls the address and approve a message—moves no crypto and costs no network fee, and OKX marks it as recommended. The alternative, a Satoshi test, means sending the exact amount shown from the address being verified to an address OKX gives you within a time limit; that is an on-chain transfer and you pay the network fee.
Binance Academy’s “What Is the Satoshi Test and How Does It Help With the Travel Rule?” (updated 29 June 2026) describes the reverse direction. When you withdraw to an external address that hasn’t been verified, Binance may ask you to send a small test amount to it first—the example is 0.00001 BTC. The recipient confirms the exact amount and transaction ID on their platform, Binance marks the address as verified, and the full withdrawal goes ahead.
Three details from that article matter before you send anything: the test amount stays with the recipient and Binance doesn’t refund it; each address only needs the test once; and verified addresses are saved in Address Management so later withdrawals skip it. To do it ahead of time, the article’s path is Account → Security → Withdrawal Whitelist or Address Management → Add Address. What a whitelist does and doesn’t protect is covered in Withdrawal whitelist or small test.
Because the two platforms run the test in opposite directions, don’t follow another exchange’s walkthrough. Read the prompt on your own screen: how much, from which address to which, and by when. Binance’s article doesn’t say what happens if a test fails or times out, so ask support before moving funds if the instructions are unclear.
The receiving exchange isn’t in the list
OKX’s EEA page says plainly that an exchange missing from the list “does not automatically mean the entire exchange is non-compliant”. Search for the entity that actually holds the recipient’s account—one exchange brand is often several companies in different regions—and contact support if it still doesn’t appear. The same page notes the receiving entity must itself be Travel Rule compliant for the withdrawal to complete.
Binance Japan is stricter. Its notice “Binance Japan to Implement Travel Rules” (published 1 August 2023, updated 25 July 2025) lists sending to platforms registered in Japan, and to platforms registered in the FSA’s “Specified Jurisdictions/Regions” (the list includes the US, Singapore, Hong Kong, the UK and Germany), as not currently supported. Sending to other Binance Japan users, to platforms elsewhere and to unhosted wallets is allowed after a risk assessment, with information required in every case.
Deposit frozen until you answer a questionnaire
The rule works in both directions. When someone sends you crypto, or you move funds back from your own wallet, and the sending side doesn’t pass the originator’s details along, the exchange asks you instead.
Binance’s developer page “Withdraw (for local entities that require travel rule)” says the deposit questionnaire only applies to transfers from unhosted wallets or from platforms not yet onboarded with GTR, the information-sharing network Binance uses. A deposit flagged as needing a questionnaire is credited only after you answer it, and the status “PENDING” is defined as “verification in progress, deposit frozen”.
Binance Bahrain’s notice “Binance Bahrain to Implement Travel Rules” (published 27 June 2024, effective 30 June 2024) adds that without the required details, access to the received crypto “may be restricted or denied”, and that deposits and withdrawals can take several business days, not counting Fridays, Saturdays and public holidays. OKX’s EEA page says a deposit “can remain locked until the required details are provided and verified”. None of the three says the funds go back to the sender automatically.
Say a client is about to pay you in USDT: ask which platform they’re sending from and in whose name. If the deposit comes from your own wallet, answer “myself”. When a deposit is late, first confirm it succeeded on-chain using the steps in USDT not received?, then look in your deposit history for a questionnaire waiting for an answer.
Can you guess the recipient’s name and fix it later?
No. Binance Japan’s notice tells users who lack their counterparty’s details to contact that person and submit accurate information, and warns that accounts can be restricted or terminated if accurate information isn’t provided on a withdrawal or deposit.
The shortcuts people are tempted by all cross that line: marking someone else’s address as your own, entering your own name as the recipient, or choosing any exchange from the list. These answers are passed on to the receiving platform with the transfer; they are not a formality like a captcha.
Before paying someone, get two things: the full name they verified with, and the platform their account is on. An internal transfer within the same exchange doesn’t touch the blockchain (see Withdrawal shows “Internal” instead of a TxID), but Binance Japan’s table still marks transfers to other Binance Japan users as “information required”, so switching to one doesn’t avoid the questionnaire.
Sources behind this guide, all opened on 23 October 2026: Binance developer documentation, “Withdraw Questionnaire Content” (marked updated 23 October 2026) and “Withdraw (for local entities that require travel rule)”; Binance Japan, “Binance Japan to Implement Travel Rules” (1 August 2023, updated 25 July 2025); Binance Bahrain, “Binance Bahrain to Implement Travel Rules” (27 June 2024); Binance Academy, “What Is the Satoshi Test and How Does It Help With the Travel Rule?” (updated 29 June 2026); OKX, “Travel Rule FAQ (EEA region)” (updated 21 October 2026). Fields, thresholds and supported-platform lists change as local rules change.