Binance Sued by Families of Hamas Victims, Hostages

Families of hostages and victims of Hamas in Israel are suing cryptocurrency exchange Binance for its alleged role in processing transactions associated with the terrorist group and others operating in the region.

The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York on Wednesday, was brought “on behalf of United States citizens who were murdered, maimed, taken hostage, or otherwise injured in unspeakable acts of terror perpetrated by Hamas and other terrorist groups in the State of Israel on October 7, 2023.”

In October, the Wall Street Journal reported that Palestinian Islamic Jihad received $93 million in crypto between August 2021 and June 2023, while Hamas received about $41 million. Those figures are probably “overstated,” Chainalysis said in a blog post.

The plaintiffs, who are also suing Iran and Syria, accuse the crypto exchange of facilitating the financing of Hamas, which is listed as a terror group by the U.S., U.K. and other jurisdictions, and other terrorist organizations between 2017 and 2023, “providing a clandestine financing tool that Binance deliberately hid from U.S. regulators.”

More than 100 Binance accounts with suspected links to Hamas were frozen at the request of Israeli law enforcement in the 10 days following the attacks that led to more than 1,000 deaths and more than 250 people taken hostage.

Binance did not immediately respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment.