After news reports came out that Binance froze Palestinian users’ assets on its crypto exchange platform at the request of Israel’s Defence Forces (IDF), Binance faced a barrage of negative responses. Speaking to Lara on the Block Binance spokesperson clarifies that only 220 Palestinian accounts were frozen out of 1500 that were flagged, which is less than 0.1 percent of users in Palestine.
While the claims are based on a document from the Israeli government which cites an administrative seizure order under the Law on Combating Terrorism. The document indicates that the seized funds were linked to organizations labelled as terrorist, with authorization from Israel’s Minister of Defence.
Binance spokesperson speaking to Lara on the Block clarified the following, “Our ambition is to serve our users for many years to come, and as a financial institution we must follow global AML/CTF standards in order to ensure user safety.”
Explaining that in October 2023, Binance was asked to freeze more than 1,500 user accounts. The spokesperson noted, “We review all requests and conduct thorough due diligence and verifications on all requests that come to us. We ended up freezing only 220 accounts in Palestine linked to illicit activity, in line with international standards that all financial institutions must follow. This represents less than 0.1% of total registered users there.”
The spokesperson added, “We are deeply saddened by the events in the Middle East. We wish for a swift and peaceful end to the conflict and the safety of all innocent civilians.”
Prior to this Richard Teng, CEO of Binance, had labelled the reports as “FUD” (fear, uncertainty, and doubt). He had noted, “FUD. Only a limited number of user accounts, linked to illicit funds, were blocked from transacting. There have been some incorrect statements about this,” Teng stated.
Historically, various centralized crypto exchanges have had to cooperate with Israeli authorities, including the seizure of accounts allegedly linked to Hamas and the Islamic State.
Binance is currently licensed both in the UAE and Bahrain within the MENA region. Earlier this year, Binance crypto exchange announced to its UAE users, that after receiving its VASP license from Dubai’s virtual asset regulatory authority for their local crypto exchange in Dubai, users in UAE need to transition their accounts to Binance FZE in UAE.
