Catenaa, Wednesday, November 26, 2025- Binance and its co-founder Changpeng Zhao face a new lawsuit alleging the crypto exchange enabled transactions tied to Hamas from 2017 through 2023.
The complaint, filed in federal court in North Dakota, was brought by more than 300 families of Americans killed or injured in attacks attributed to the group.
The plaintiffs claim Binance’s corporate design, pooled wallets, and lax compliance measures allowed users linked to Hamas to move funds undetected. They allege Zhao directed practices that obscured customer locations and activity, limiting oversight and shielding transactions from U.S. regulators.
Binance reportedly relied on omnibus wallets, weak identity verification, and short-term record-keeping that made it difficult to trace individual transfers. The complaint asserts these practices facilitated illicit activity even as the exchange expanded globally.
The lawsuit follows Binance’s 2023 $4.3 billion settlement with U.S. authorities over anti-money laundering and sanctions violations, after which Zhao served a brief federal sentence and later received a presidential pardon.
Analysts note that the decentralized nature of blockchain transactions makes preventing such activity technologically challenging.
Other civil actions have accused Binance of supporting transactions for organizations designated as terrorist groups.
Legal experts say the case could intensify scrutiny of compliance practices at major crypto platforms and underscores growing pressure on exchanges to maintain robust monitoring and reporting systems.
