How to create a read-only Binance API key

Open Binance API Management ↗

We checked these steps against Binance's own documentation on 25 September 2026. Binance can rename a button at any time. If a label differs, look for the same permission.

Before you start

• Use a binance.com account. Binance.US accounts cannot connect.
• Turn on two-factor authentication and finish identity verification on Binance.
• Deposit any amount into your Spot Wallet. Binance will not create a key without it.

Permissions

Turn on only:

• Enable Reading

Keep these off:

• Enable Withdrawals
• Enable Spot & Margin Trading
• Enable Futures
• Enable Margin Loan, Repay & Transfer
• Enable Internal Transfer
• Permits Universal Transfer

Steps

Sovereign connects to Binance from one fixed IP address. The connection form in Sovereign shows it next to these steps, with a copy button.

1. In API Management (button above), click “Create API”, not “Create Tax Report API”.
2. Choose “System generated” and click “Next”.
3. Type a label such as “Sovereign” and click “Next”.
4. Complete Binance's security check, for example your authenticator app code and an email code.
5. Copy the API Key and the Secret Key somewhere safe. Binance shows the Secret Key only once.
6. On the new key, click “Edit restrictions” (in the Binance app it is “Edit”).
7. Under “IP access restrictions:”, select “Restrict access to trusted IPs only (Recommended)”, paste Sovereign's IP address into the box that appears, then click “Confirm”.
8. Leave only “Enable Reading” ticked, then save the changes to the key.
9. Paste the API Key into “API KEY” and the Secret Key into “API SECRET” in the fields of Sovereign's connection form, then press “Connect & Sync”.

Where each value goes in Sovereign:

• API Key → API KEY
• Secret Key → API SECRET

Does a Binance API key expire?

• With an IP restriction: No expiry date published.
• Without an IP restriction: No expiry date published either — a key left unused is widely reported to be deleted after 30 days, but Binance's own FAQ does not state it as a rule.

Sovereign uses the key every six hours while the connection is on, which normally keeps it from counting as unused. Restricting the key to Sovereign's IP is worth doing for its own sake.

Binance publishes no clear expiry rule. If the key stops working, Sovereign marks the connection as expired and asks for a new key.

A key only sees the account it was created in, so each Binance sub-account needs its own key and its own Sovereign connection.

If something goes wrong

• If Binance will not create the key: check that two-factor authentication is on, identity verification is done and your Spot Wallet has a deposit.
• If you picked “Self-generated”: that key will not work with Sovereign. Create a new “System generated” key.
• If you lost the Secret Key: delete the key in Binance and create a new one.
• If you already have 30 keys: delete one you no longer use. Binance allows 30 per account.

Sources

• www.binance.com/en/support/faq/how-to-create-api-keys-on-binance-360002502072
• www.binance.com/en/support/faq/detail/2bec848b904b422197ce121d0925f20b
• www.binance.com/en/support/faq/frequently-asked-questions-on-api-360004492232
• www.binance.com/en/my/settings/api-management