Court Dismisses Terrorism Claims Against Binance

The lawsuit was brought forward by 535 plaintiffs, including victims and relatives of victims of 64 separate terrorist attacks that occurred between 2017 and 2024. The plaintiffs alleged that organizations such as Hamas, Hezbollah, Al-Qaeda, and ISIS used the Binance platform for financial transactions. The case was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas in Manhattan, who stated the plaintiffs did not provide a plausible argument that Binance and its founder, Changpeng Zhao, "culpably associated themselves with these terrorist attacks." The judge characterized the relationship between Binance and the organizations as an "arms' length relationship." Judge Vargas was critical of the plaintiffs' 891-page, 3,189-paragraph complaint, deeming it "wholly unnecessary." Despite the dismissal, the plaintiffs have been granted the opportunity to amend and refile their complaint. This civil lawsuit followed a previous case in which Binance pleaded guilty to violating federal anti-money laundering and sanctions laws, resulting in a $4.32 billion penalty. However, the court found no evidence in this case that Binance deliberately facilitated terrorist transactions. A spokesperson for Binance stated that the court "correctly dismissed these baseless allegations" and that the company has "zero tolerance for wrongdoing on its platform." Changpeng Zhao, Binance's founder, asserted that centralized exchanges have no financial incentive to be involved with terrorist groups. The lawsuit was filed under the Anti-Terrorism Act, which allows victims of international terrorism to seek treble damages. The plaintiffs were seeking to hold Binance liable for allegedly enabling hundreds of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency transfers to and from the designated terrorist organizations.