Judge Dismisses Binance Terrorist Financing Lawsuit

A federal judge in Manhattan dismissed a civil lawsuit on Friday accusing cryptocurrency exchange Binance and its founder, Changpeng Zhao, of facilitating terrorist financing through transactions linked to dozens of global attacks. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Jeannette A. Vargas in the Southern District of New York ended the case at an early stage, finding that the 535 plaintiffs failed to demonstrate a direct connection between the company's operations and the violence.

The plaintiffs, including victims and relatives of those killed or injured, represented individuals affected by 64 attacks carried out between 2017 and 2024. They alleged that groups designated as foreign terrorist organizations, such as Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic State, al-Qaeda, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps and Kataib Hezbollah, used Binance to process hundreds of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency transfers that supported the operations. The suit, filed under the Anti-Terrorism Act and the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, sought damages for what plaintiffs described as Binance's role in enabling these funds to flow through its platform, including billions in...