One of many largest cryptocurrency trade firms is dealing with backlash for allegedly seizing crypto from Palestinians on the request of the Israeli military.
Ray Youssef, co-founder of Paxful, a peer-to-peer crypto platform and CEO at Noones, said on X that Binance had seized all funds from all Palestinians.
“Binance has seized all funds from all Palestinians as per the request of the IDF. They refuse to return the funds. All appeals denied,” Youssef wrote.
“I’ve acquired this from a number of sources. ALL Palestinians are affected and judging by the best way issues are going all Lebanese and Syrians will get the identical therapy. Not your keys, not your cash,” Youssef added.
The CEO shared a letter from his sources at Binance, referring to a letter signed in November 2023 by Paul Landes, the top of Israel’s Nationwide Bureau for Counter Terror Financing, in response to Palestinian customers who appealed to revive their funds.
The letter, written in Hebrew, says in response to anti-terrorism legal guidelines, the Minister of Defence is allowed to order a “momentary seizure of property of a declared terrorist organisation, in addition to seizure of property which was used to commit against the law”.
The funds have been supposedly transferred by the Dubai Alternate Firm within the Gaza Strip, which is a declared “terrorist organisation“, in response to the letter.
Youssef additionally shared a video from a Palestinian supposedly confirming that “Israel is placing huge stress on Binance and all different exchanges to blanket seize the funds of ALL Palestinians”.
The corporate has since acquired backlash, with many customers on-line calling for a boycott.
“Time to boycott @binance They’re working with the #IsraeliApartheid to grab and freeze our brothers and sisters property primarily based on Israeli calls for, Crypto is supposed to be decentralised not managed by the federal government. I deleted my account, now it is your time guys,” one person wrote on X.
“TAKE YOUR FUNDS OUT OF BINANCE. They assist Genocide and are bending over to Israel to freeze property in Palestine. think about what they’ll do together with your funds,” one other wrote.
“Disgrace on @binance for stealing individuals’s cash,” said one other.
Binance has denied blocking cryptocurrency from all Palestinians, telling Cointelegraph, “Solely a small variety of person accounts, linked to illicit funds, have been blocked from transacting”.
The spokesperson additionally stated the corporate complies with “internationally accepted sanctions laws, identical to some other monetary establishment”.
Information from software program firm Similarweb cited by Cointelegraph discovered that Palestine was a “minor market” for Binance, with the site visitors share amounting to roughly 0.05 % of Binance’s visits over the previous 12 months.
Nevertheless, Palestine’s site visitors surged to over 80 % since August 2023.