Leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance has been accused of working under the command of the Israeli government to seize all the funds from all Palestinians. Binance has come forward to denying all allegations, insisting that it only targeted only a limited number of accounts that were involved in transferring illicit funds. But it seems that all their efforts are a little too late with the overwhelming evidence showing that Binance was indeed moving under the orders of the Israeli government. Users are now withdrawing their funds from the Binance platform, which signals an upcoming storm for the giant China's leading centralised exchange platform.
Binance denies blocking funds from all Palestinians
Co-founder of Binance came forward to give her statement, stressing that as a global exchange platform, the company complies with internationally accepted Anti Money laundering legislation. She also assures that the company will continue to educate users on how to safely and securely transact on their platform. Most importantly, the company hopes for lasting peace throughout the region.
Binance CEO also came forward to give a similar statement.
There are also other X users queries if other Palestinians living in the illegally occupied territories are still able to use Binance or withdraw funds? Yi He clarified that they could.
Binance did not provide additional details on the number of affected users and when their restriction was enforced. According to data shared by SimilarWeb, Palestine is a minor market for Bianance, with Palestine's traffic share amounting to roughly 0.05% of Binance's visits over the past year.
The situation comes amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza, where, according to local health authorities, more than 40,500 Palestinians have been killed, and over 92,700 others injured. The Israel-Palestine war, now more than ten months in, has left large areas of Gaza in ruins under a severe blockade that has restricted access to food, clean water and medicine.
Orders from the Istraeli governments?
Social media users also shared a letter which is supposedly originating from Israel's government, ordering the seizing of Palestinians' crypto assets. Written in Hebrew, the letter mentioned that the anti-terrorism laws allow the Minister of Defense to issue a "temporary seizure of property of a declared terrorist organisation," including cryptocurrency funds.
The letter further stated that the Ministry of Defense should order the confiscation of the property for which the seizure order was issued.
Till now, the authenticity of the letter has not yet been verified.
Response from the community
Obviously, many users of the Binance platform were outraged by the news that Binance could be working with the Israeli government. This anger triggered a slew of visitors to withdraw their funds from the Binance platform as a way to protest and show their dissatisfaction.
Within a day since the publication of the news, Binance has lost 44,808 Bitcoin worth of money which was withdrawn from their website. And there might be more people who could also be following suit for all we know.
Criticism on the impartiality of the platform
Ray Youssef, former CEP of Paxful and current CEO of the P2P marketplace Noone App has come forward to give his comment on this situation. He claimed that it has been 100% confirmed that Israel has put massive pressure on Binance and all other exchanges to blanket seize the funds of ALL Palestinians.
Youssef also created a screen recorded video showing a message from the Binance's customer serve confirming that the freezing of a Palestinian user's account was ordered by the Israeli law enforcement. This incident has intensified calls for Biance to clarify its position amidst distrust.
Binance has cooperations and past partnerships with the Israeli authorities, including the seizure of accounts linked to Hamas and the Islamic State efforts to combat terrorism.
All this has led him to think that centralised exchanges like Binance may be turning into "government arms" rather than a secure digital asset custodian.
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