Deniz 
Sources from a well-known industry executive indicate that major worldwide bitcoin exchange Binance stole coins from Palestinians following a request from Israel.
Taking to X on August 26, Ray Youssef, CEO of Noone’s P2P platform and co-founder of the peer-to-peer (P2P) crypto network Paxful, reported that Binance seized money from Palestinians upon the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
“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 said, referencing a letter from Israel officials given by Binance, among other sources.
Impact on Palestinians and Surrounding Regions
Claiming that other nations like Lebanon and Syria are probably going to follow, he said the policy harmed all Palestinians.
“All Palestinians are affected, and judging by the way things are going, all Lebanese and Syrians will get the same treatment. Not your keys, not your coins,” Youssef said.
Youssef’s sources claim that Binance responded to Palestinian users who asked to restore the frozen payments by referring to a November 2023 signed letter from Israel’s National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing. Paul Landes Written in Hebrew, the letter noted that the anti-terrorism rules let the Minister of Defense grant a “temporary seizure of property of a declared terrorist organization, including cryptocurrency funds.”
The letter expresses “Based on the anti-terrorism law, cryptographic currencies transferred by a declared terrorist organization are property of a declared terrorist organization and cryptocurrency wallets to which they have been transferred.” The letter further said the Ministry of Defense should order the property for which the seizure order was issued confiscated.
Binance’s Defense and Market Impact
A Binance correspondence claims that the bitcoin trading platform solely limits specific Palestinian accounts engaged in illegal activity.
When asked to verify or refute the claims, Binance informed media that the affected user count was small and said, “There have been some incorrect statements around this. Only a small number of user accounts linked to illicit funds were blocked from transacting.”
Like any other financial institution, Binance follows “internationally accepted sanctions legislation,” a spokesman for the company also pointed out. “Most importantly, we hope for sustained peace throughout the region,” the official said. Regarding the amount of impacted users and when the limitations were implemented, Binance omitted more specifics.
With Palestine’s traffic share of over 0.05% of Binance’s visits over the past year, data sent by the website analytics provider SimilarWeb indicates Palestine is a tiny market for Binance.
SimilarWeb notes among nations with a comparable traffic share countries like El Salvador with a 0.06% traffic share, Albania with a 0.06% traffic share, Malta with a 0.03% traffic share and others. Since August 2023, Palestine’s Binance traffic has jumped more than 80%.
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