3x damages threat from a 284-page Binance terror-financing case puts exchanges on notice
A lawsuit against Binance seeks $3 billion in treble damages under the Anti-Terrorism Act for alleged terror financing facilitation.Summary
A 284-page complaint filed in North Dakota federal court by 306 American families seeks $1 billion, potentially tripling to $3 billion under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), against Binance, Changpeng Zhao, and Guangying Chen for alleged facilitation of terror financing related to the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks. The case leverages on-chain data linking $1 billion in flows to Hamas and other groups, combined with Binance's prior guilty plea for failing to report suspicious transactions. The plaintiffs, led by Willkie Farr & Gallagher, argue that Binance's internal architecture—which allegedly allowed VIP exemptions and undermined monitoring—constituted "knowing and substantial assistance" to terrorists, moving beyond the "ordinary services" defense that protected Twitter in a previous ruling. The complaint highlights internal messages where compliance staff allegedly acknowledged criminal activity while ignoring it. While immediate judgment is years away, the lawsuit sets a template for future ATA/JASTA suits, increasing regulatory and banking friction for centralized exchanges (CEXs) and potentially forcing liquidity fragmentation or migration toward decentralized exchanges (DEXs).
(Source：CryptoSlate)