Changpeng Zhao (CZ), Co-Founder of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, is now facing a new lawsuit in the U.S along with the exchange. The case accuses him and Binance as well as its de facto Chief Financial Officer Chen Guangying of helping enable payments to Hamas and other terrorist groups. The complaint, filed in federal court in North Dakota, comes from American citizens whose relatives were killed, injured, or taken hostage in Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack. The assault left around 1,200 dead and led to roughly 250 hostages being taken into Gaza.
According to the complaint, Binance “knowingly facilitated” millions of dollars in crypto transactions for Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for years. The filing states, “ This assistance directly and materially contributed to the October 7 Attacks and to subsequent terrorist attacks perpetrated by Hamas, Hezbollah, and PIJ.”
The filing claims that Binance’s own wallets sent more than $300 million to terror-linked accounts before the attack, and over $115 million afterward, totaling over $400 million. Some of these accounts allegedly remained active even after Binance paid a $4.3 billion settlement in 2023 for past sanctions and money-laundering violations.
The 284-page complaint goes into significant detail. It lists specific digital wallets allegedly tied to Hamas, Hezbollah, PIJ, and the IRGC. It also claims Binance was intentionally structured to operate outside national laws, allowing illicit groups to move money freely. The filing reads, “The fact that Binance intentionally structured itself as a refuge for illicit activity, and knew full well that specific accounts controlled by terrorist organizations were among its customers, has been confirmed by, among other things, voluminous evidence from U.S. enforcement actions.”
Internal messages cited in the lawsuit include a 2020 remark from Binance’s Chief Compliance Officer stating that users “are here for crime. Another employee joked that the company should advertise itself by saying, “Is washing drug money too hard these days — come to Binance.” The plaintiffs say Binance ignored warnings in both 2019 and 2020 about Hamas-linked wallets.
The lawsuit also describes how criminal groups in Venezuela allegedly mined and smuggled gold to Iran. According to the filing, these funds were then used to help finance Hamas and Hezbollah through crypto. One example involves a 26-year-old Venezuelan woman who reportedly acted as a front for a Hezbollah-linked gold smuggling network.
She allegedly received $177 million in crypto and withdrew $43 million in cash. U.S. agencies such as the Justice Department and the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) have also raised concerns about Binance before. They said Binance employees were aware that Hamas’s al-Qassam Brigades used Bitcoin to raise money. They also said the exchange failed to file the suspicious activity reports that were required.
There is still a legal dispute over where victims are allowed to sue Binance, since the company says it has no U.S. base. A judge in New York has already ruled that victims “plausibly” alleged that Binance “knowingly and substantially assisted” the October 7 attackers. In another case, a judge in Alabama denied Binance’s request to transfer the lawsuit to another state. Under U.S. anti-terrorism laws, companies can face triple damages if they are found to have substantially assisted a designated terrorist group.
The plaintiffs include survivors and families of people who were killed or kidnapped. They include relatives of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an Israeli-American hostage murdered in Gaza; Itay Chen, an Israeli-American soldier whose body was recently returned; Danielle Waldman, who was killed at the Nova music festival; and the son of Israeli ambassador Yechiel Leiter, who was also killed by Hamas.
These families have argued that Binance’s alleged failures played a role in the financing that helped support the attack.Binance says it cannot comment on ongoing litigation, but maintains that it follows global sanctions and anti-money-laundering rules. The case has raised broader questions about how crypto platforms monitor transactions, prevent illicit activity, and remain accountable as digital finance continues to grow worldwide.
