Taking to X (f.k.a Twitter) user Ray Youssef who is also the co-founder of Paxful pointed out that “Binance has seized all funds from all Palestinians as per the request of the IDF”, this claim came as a shock to most netizens.
Ray also went on to point out that appeals from Palestinians affected by this move from Binance have fallen on deaf ears, with no move to rectify the situation.
A document explaining the reason why a request to review the seizure of assets was examined and rejected was also shared by Ray via his X page.
Details on The Possible Seizure of All Palestinian Cryptocurrency on Binance
The document shared by Ray Youssef concerning this matter points out one sole reason for the seizure of funds within the region.
According to the document, this move is a “temporary seizure of property of a declared terrorist organization” by Israel’s Minister of Defence.
Operating within the confinements of the law, the Israeli defense force holds the right to seize the funds including crypto assets of a declared terrorist organization.
This can be found under Section 56(b) of the Anti-Terrorism Law and is the basis for the alleged seizure of the crypto assets at the request of the Israeli defense force from Palestinian Binance accounts.
So the claim here is that all Binance users in Palestine have either sent or received crypto assets from an organization that Israel tags as a terrorist organization.
Ray Youssef goes on to claim that following this unfair treatment of the Palestine people, there is a high probability that
All Lebanese and Syrians will get the same treatment.
This is a very questionable action from Binance and if true can seriously affect user acceptance of their services in most regions around the world.
However, because Ray Youssef also used this post to promote his Noones app as a safer alternative to Binance, some might view this move as a marketing stunt.
Binance Response To The Allegations About Seizing Palestine Crypto
With these heavy allegations flying around the internet, it is only natural to expect some sort of public statement from Binance regarding this matter.
Speaking with the folks at CoinTelegraph Binance points out that
There have been some incorrect statements around this.
The cryptocurrency trading platform goes on to point out that “only a small number of user accounts, linked to illicit funds, were blocked from transacting”.
So, Binance confirms that Palestine accounts were blocked from using their platform due to issues around the receiving or sending of illicit funds. However, they clarified that not all Palestinian accounts were blocked from using their platform.
At this point, there is no news on how widespread this restriction is or how many Palestinian accounts were blocked from Binance.
The firm also doesn’t stand to gain much, as their traffic from Palestine over the past year amounts to 0.05% of Binance’s overall traffic.
While the usage of Binance is growing in the Palestinian region, there seems to be no real reason to block off all Palestinian users.
Binance co-founder Ye Hi has also denied this claim made by Ray Youssef; in her statement, she reaffirmed that only a few Palestinian accounts were seized in “compliance with global Anti-Money Laundering laws, ensuring that Palestinians in occupied territories can still access and withdraw funds.”
Popular analyst Michael van de Poppe also points out that this claim is “literally far from real”
