Binance has taken action to freeze accounts linked to Hamas militants following requests from Israeli law enforcement. This move does not impact the accounts held by ordinary Palestinian civilians.
In a WeChat post dated October 10th, Yi He, one of Binance’s co-founders, clarified that this freeze specifically targets Hamas and is not aimed at the Palestinian population as a whole. He stated:
“Hamas is officially recognized as a terrorist organization by the United Nations. Consequently, any entity, including financial institutions and trading platforms, is obligated to cooperate when freeze requests are made. Binance does not have the discretion to make such decisions independently.”
Yi He went on to elaborate that no trading platform can decline these requests, emphasizing, “Palestine has a legitimate government, while Hamas is a local militant group. Their actions result in civilian casualties, which is the core issue. It’s essential to understand that Hamas is not synonymous with Palestine; the freeze is directed exclusively at Hamas, not Palestine.”
On an earlier note, on October 10th, Calcalist, a local news outlet, reported that Israeli authorities, in collaboration with Binance, froze the cryptocurrency accounts of Hamas militants. Law enforcement alleges that these accounts were being used by terrorists to collect funds for warfare through social media.
Yi He assured that regular users, including Palestinian civilians, would not be impacted by this ban. She drew a parallel to previous incidents, saying, “During previous conflicts, such as the one involving Russia and Ukraine, we did not freeze the accounts of ordinary Russian citizens.”
