US filings: Binance's lax rules and staff misconduct helped Hamas, al-Qaida, and ISIS raise funds, let Iranians conduct 1.1M+ transactions worth $899M, and more
The filings arrive after research tied crypto wallets associated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas to substantial inflows, including wallet activity examined before the October 7 attack. They put Binance at the center of the related concerns by alleging both sanctions-related Iranian activity and failures to prevent fundraising by designated militant groups.
First-order effects
Binance faces a more detailed public record of alleged AML and sanctions-control failures, centered on more than 1.1 million Iranian transactions said to total $899M.
The allegations sharpen scrutiny of Binance’s controls over accounts and transfers connected to Hamas, al-Qaida, and ISIS; the filings are allegations, not findings stated in this report.
Second-order effects
Other crypto platforms and their compliance vendors face pressure to demonstrate stronger sanctions screening, transaction monitoring, and escalation processes for high-risk accounts.
Banks, payment partners, and institutional customers may reassess their exposure to exchanges whose controls are questioned, making compliance quality a more consequential commercial differentiator.
Third-order effects
If enforcement and disclosure continue to connect weak exchange controls with sanctions evasion and militant financing, crypto market access is likely to become more contingent on auditable AML governance rather than trading scale alone.
The case reinforces the later scrutiny of suspicious flows through Binance, suggesting that compliance lapses can create enduring regulatory and civil-liability exposure rather than a one-time reputational event.
The trend: This is a data point in crypto’s legitimacy gap, where exchanges are being judged increasingly on whether their compliance systems can withstand national-security and sanctions scrutiny.
I haven't read the post-mortem yet on the Binance $4B+ fine levied yesterday, but if the info below is accurate, multiple parties should have been indicted. [embedded post]
Since the founding of Coinbase back in 2012 we have taken a long-term view. I knew we needed to embrace compliance to become a generational company that stood the test of time. We got the licenses, hired the compliance and legal teams, and made it clear our brand was about trust.…
CZ: “We banned Iran” Correction: “OK , but it was only $898 million.” “Binance allowed at least 1.1 million transactions, worth more than $898 million, involving customers in Iran, according to the court filing.” https://www.bloomberg.com/...
@nic__carter The entire nation of Iran is a “sanctioned entity” 80 million people Do you think only maybe 70 million of them are evil terrorists? Or all 80 million?
I think we can acknowledge that Binance has been a critical lynchpin of crypto adoption globally while also granting that knowingly facilitating 1b in flows to sanctioned entities is extremely bad - and not a victimless crime
I never cease to marvel at what fraction of “innovation” in recent decades is simply due to circumventing regulations. Uber, crypto, Airbnb... And while binance did some evil shit (helping finance Iran, Hamas), maybe we should actually streamline a lot of regulations
Binance was used to fund Hamas and other sanctioned entities? I'm shocked that crypto was used as a tool to fund bad actors, terror, and to get around AML rules.
As someone who is about as anti Hamas and anti Binance as it gets, the focus on this is basically complete nonsense How about the Barclays Bank account Hamas was using for hundreds of millions Or all the money being funneled through NGOs Performative nonsense from Warren
Binance allowed illicit actors to transact freely, from child sexual abuse, to illegal narcotics, to terrorism, across more than 100k transactions including those associated with terrorist groups like Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Al Qaeda, & ISIS https://content.govdelivery.…
@Jason @cz_binance Cryptocurrency is a tiny drop in the bucket of overall “funding of terrorism” and AML violations. Blockchain ledgers are transparent - and a terrible method to launder money, which is why even Hamas told people to stop sending them Bitcoin. See below. https://c…
At the end of the day, @cz_binance encouraged folks to break KYC & built his company around it, while knowing it would enable terrorists to covertly and quickly fund their operations Most crypto folks I've met accept that covert funding of terrorism is the price you pay for... [i…
Biggest takeaway from the doc so far is 20-30% of Binance was US and facilitated by “VIP accounts” and other circumvention. Under a DoJ monitor, that liquidity is going to get zapped in an already low liquidity environment. That part sucks for the industry. Hopefully offset by...
The DOJ just throwing random scary words to the public to make Binance sound so evil. Hamas? Binance. Iran? Binance. BIN LADEN? Binance. Child abuse? Binance. Ukraine? Binance. Do you know what Hitler used to escape anti money laundering laws? Oh that's right, BINANCE. 😂