Binance, the cryptocurrency exchange, has adhered to a request from Israeli law enforcement to freeze accounts linked to militants from Hamas.
Accounts owned by regular Palestinian civilians on Binance remain unaffected by the freeze.
Yi He, the co-founder of the exchange, explained in a WeChat post on October 10 that this freeze specifically targets Hamas and not the entire Palestinian population. He stated:
“Hamas is designated as a terrorist organization by the United Nations. Therefore, any organization, including banks and trading platforms, must cooperate upon receiving freeze requests. This is not a decision Binance can make independently.“
He further clarified that trading platforms do not have the option to reject such requests, emphasizing, “Palestine has an organized government. Hamas is a local militant group. They harm civilians; that’s the problem. Hamas is not Palestine; the freeze is directed at Hamas, not Palestine.“
On October 10, local news source Calcalist reported that Binance had assisted Israeli officials in freezing cryptocurrency accounts linked to Hamas militants. Authorities allege these accounts were used by terrorists to collect funds for warfare through social media.
The day before, reports surfaced that the Israeli Web3 community had launched a charity campaign called “Crypto Aid Israel” to support civilians affected by the ongoing conflict. This initiative accepts donations in Bitcoin and Ether, as well as various ERC-20 tokens like Tether. Since its launch, the campaign has garnered nearly $50,000 in cryptocurrency donations.
Yi He assured that the ban would not affect regular users, including Palestinian civilians. She cited past incidents, such as conflicts between Russia and Ukraine, where they did not freeze the accounts of ordinary Russian users.
