US Federal Court Dismisses Terrorism Lawsuit Against Binance and Zhao Changpeng

According to reports, US Manhattan Federal Judge Jeannette Vargas has dismissed a civil lawsuit that sought to hold Binance and founder CZ responsible, alleging their trading activities aided terrorist organizations in carrying out global attacks.

The judge ruled that the 535 plaintiffs (including victims and their families) failed to adequately demonstrate that the defendants "intentionally conspired with, participated in, or ensured the success of terrorist attacks through their actions." The plaintiffs alleged attacks occurred between 2017 and 2024, carried out by external terrorist organizations such as Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran's Revolutionary Guard, ISIS, Kata'ib Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Al-Qaeda, and attempted to attribute billions of dollars in cryptocurrency transactions with Iranian users to Binance and CZ.

The judge noted that while Binance and CZ may have some awareness of the potential role of exchanges in terrorist financing, their relationship with terrorist organizations is limited to "having accounts on Binance and conducting transactions fairly." The judge also criticized the plaintiffs' 891-page, 3,189-paragraph complaint as "entirely unnecessary," but allowed for amendments. A Binance spokesperson stated: "The court correctly dismissed these baseless allegations. Binance strictly adheres to compliance requirements and has zero tolerance for illicit activities on the platform." CZ also mentioned that the plaintiffs attempted to seek triple damages by leveraging Binance's admission in November 2023 of violating anti-money laundering and sanctions laws and paying a $4.32 billion fine.

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