FDD | Nov 25, 2025
Latest Developments
- Crypto Terror Lawsuit: American victims of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, atrocities in Israel are suing the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, and its founder, Changpeng Zhao. The exchange is accused of helping transfer funds to Hamas, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization, and other terrorist groups. The case was filed in a federal court in North Dakota, where at least two suspicious transactions were processed “through online addresses linked to Kindred, North Dakota.” Binance and Zhao are also the defendants in another lawsuit brought to the Manhattan federal court by victims of terrorist attacks by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, who claim that both groups used the platform “for years” to “raise money and transact illegal business.”
- Serious Complaint: The complaint alleges that the company’s actions were “far more serious and pervasive than what the U.S. government disclosed,” asserting that the firm “knowingly sent and received the equivalent of more than $1 billion to and from accounts and wallets controlled by [foreign terrorist organizations] responsible for the October 7 attacks.” The list included Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Among the accounts identified in the complaint was one associated with Ali Mohammad Alawieh, the son of Hezbollah commander Muhammad Abd al-Rasul Alawieh; another that was opened by a PIJ terrorist in Gaza; and additional accounts linked to Hezbollah’s “illicit gold smuggling operations” using “cryptocurrency transfers made to Venezuelan and Brazilian” criminal groups.
- Former Binance Settlement: In 2023, Binance reached a $4.3 billion settlement with the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and other regulators for money laundering violations. Zhao was required to serve a four-month prison sentence, pay a $50 million fine, and step down as the company’s CEO. In October, President Donald Trump pardoned Zhao, enabling him to return to his former role at the exchange.
FDD Expert Response
“Civil litigation remains an effective and important tool for exposing corporate failures that enable terrorist financing. Binance has faced longstanding law enforcement concern over serious deficiencies in its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing controls, and cases like this one will help bring those failures into the public eye.” — Max Meizlish, CEFP Senior Research Analyst
“As the father of one of the victims of the October 7 atrocities observed, ‘Binance’s platform moved the money that helped fund the violence that destroyed our family.’ By allegedly aiding in the transfer of funds to terrorist organizations, Binance — which craves mainstream acceptance and respectability, like the rest of the cryptocurrency industry — has revealed its dark side.” — Ben Cohen, Senior Analyst and Rapid Response Director
FDD Background and Analysis
“Argentina Arrests Hezbollah Crypto Financing Suspects,” by Toby Dershowitz and Ari Ben Am
“Blood Money: Stopping the Cash That Underwrites Terror,” by Elaine K. Dezenski
“Hamas’ Cryptocurrency Use Draws Attention to Terror Finance Enforcement Gaps,” by Elaine K. Dezenski and Michael Sugden
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