Binance, a leading cryptocurrency exchange, is facing serious allegations of freezing “all funds from all Palestinians” following a request from the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). The accusation was made by Ray Youssef, CEO of the peer-to-peer crypto marketplace NoOnes and co-founder of the crypto platform Paxful, on Monday.
Youssef took to X (formerly Twitter) to directly accuse Binance of complying with the IDF’s request, stating that the exchange refused to return the funds and denied all appeals. He cited several sources and a letter from Israeli authorities allegedly circulated by Binance to back his claim.
According to Youssef, the letter was signed in November 2023 by Paul Landes, head of Israel’s National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing. It reportedly referenced an Israeli law that allows the military to temporarily seize property belonging to a declared terrorist organization, including cryptocurrencies.
Youssef reiterated his claim, stating, “Binance has seized all funds from all Palestinians as per the request of the IDF. They refuse to return the funds. All appeals denied. Your funds are SAFU.”
The letter Youssef referred to highlights Section 61(a) of Israel’s Law on Combating Terrorism, which grants the Minister of Defense the authority to issue temporary seizure orders. The law enables the seizure of property, including cryptocurrency wallets, associated with terrorist organizations or used in committing serious terrorist offenses. The administrative seizure order mentioned in the letter, signed by the Minister of Defense, was issued based on intelligence that linked certain cryptocurrency wallets to a terrorist organization in Gaza.
The action is expected to impact not only Palestinians but potentially citizens of neighboring countries like Lebanon and Syria, Youssef warned, saying, “All Palestinians are affected, and judging by the way things are going, all Lebanese and Syrians will get the same treatment. Not your keys, not your coins.”
Binance has strongly denied these accusations. Richard Teng, Binance’s CEO, labeled the reports as “FUD” (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt), emphasizing that only a limited number of accounts linked to illicit funds were blocked. Teng assured that Binance complies with “internationally accepted anti-money laundering legislation.”
However, Teng did not provide specific details on the number of users affected or the amount of funds frozen. It’s worth noting that Palestinians make up a very small percentage of Binance’s user base, contributing just about 0.05% of the platform’s total traffic over the past year, according to data from SimilarWeb, as reported by Cointelegraph.
For more updates, join our WhatsApp channel here.