Crypto exchange Binance has seized all funds belonging to Palestinians, acting on a request from the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).
This revelation comes straight from Ray Youssef, who stated that the exchange refuses to return the funds. All appeals have been denied. Palestinians affected by this decision have found their accounts frozen with no way to access their crypto assets.
The seizure is reportedly tied to Israeli law—specifically, the Anti-Terrorism Law of 2016. The law gives Israel’s Minister of Defense broad powers to confiscate property deemed to be linked to terrorism. A seizure order, labeled T56/23, was signed on November 1, 2023, under this law.
The claim is that cryptocurrency wallets, including those owned by Palestinians, have received funds from a group designated as a terrorist organization by Israel. This group, the Dubai Exchange Company operating in Gaza, was flagged by Israel in 2022.
Ray explained that:
“According to the anti-terrorism law, cryptographic currencies that have been transferred by a declared terrorist organization constitute property of a declared terrorist organization and cryptocurrency wallets to which it has been transferred.”
The law provides cover for Binance’s move to freeze and hold Palestinian funds, citing reliable intelligence as the reason for targeting specific cryptocurrency wallets. Ray said:-
“I have received this from several sources. 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. We are all Palestinians now.”
Centralized exchanges like Binance are starting to look more like government snitches than safe places to store your crypto. And it gets worse.
Ray claims that Binance has been leaking info on MENA (Middle East and North Africa) users to the IDF without any legal process—no warrant, no subpoena, just handing it over.
If that’s true, it’s a massive betrayal of trust, not just to Palestinian users, but to anyone using the platform. “CZ was innocent. He went to jail because he refused to tow this line,” Ray said. Now, Binance is “fully compromised,” and so is any other centralized exchange.
Meanwhile, CEO Richard Teng has shot down the claims. Richard explained that only a small number of accounts tied to illegal activities were blocked, calling the accusations baseless FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt).
He also pointed out that the notice we got from Ray didn’t name the accounts involved. According to him, Binance, like other global crypto exchanges, follows international anti-money laundering laws, which require action against illegal financial activities.
Richard made it clear that the actions taken were standard compliance measures and not a blanket freeze on all Palestinian accounts, stressing that there have been some false reports about the situation.
The Israeli government has said it has seized 190 Binance accounts connected to terrorism since 2021.
This article was updated to add Binance’s response to the allegations.
