Binance CEO Richard Teng refuted allegations that the crypto exchange froze all assets belonging to Palestinians at the request of the Israeli armed forces.
The claim was made by Ray Youssef, founder and CEO of the peer-to-peer bitcoin trading platform NoOnes, on social media platform X.
In response, Teng described the claim as “FUD,” meaning fear, uncertainty, and doubt. He clarified, “Only a limited number of user accounts, linked to illicit funds, were blocked from transacting. There have been some incorrect statements about this. As a global crypto exchange, we comply with internationally accepted anti-money laundering legislation, just like any other financial institution.”
Youssef’s post included a letter in Hebrew from Paul Landes, head of Israel’s National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing, which rejected an appeal against a seizure order from November 1, 2023. The letter mentioned that funds were transferred from the Dubai Exchange Company in Gaza to various cryptographic wallets, but did not identify the recipients. The Dubai Exchange Company was designated as a terror organization in 2022.
Israel has reportedly seized 190 Binance accounts tied to terrorism since 2021. Additional accounts linked to Hamas were frozen on October 10 at the request of Israeli police, following an attack that led to significant Israeli casualties.
Later in October, the U.S. issued sanctions on entities providing money transfers and digital asset exchange services in Gaza to target Hamas, recognized as a terror organization in the U.S., U.K., and other regions.
Binance did not disclose the number of affected users or the specific timing of the restrictions. According to data from SimilarWeb, Palestine accounts for only 0.05% of Binance’s traffic over the past year, a minor share similar to countries like El Salvador and Albania. However, traffic from Palestine to Binance’s platform surged by more than 80% since August 2023.
The controversy adds to the growing scrutiny Binance faces worldwide, including a recent lawsuit alleging the exchange’s involvement in laundering stolen crypto.
