Binance Faces Court Claims Over Stolen Crypto in Landmark Ruling

A US appeals court has dealt a significant blow to Binance's efforts to force crypto theft victims into arbitration, clearing the path for them to sue the exchange over stolen funds.

The decision sends the case back to federal court and could allow claims tied to alleged compliance failures to proceed.

The plaintiffs never signed Binance's terms of use, but the exchange had tried to force them into arbitration using a doctrine called equitable estoppel. However, the appeals court rejected this reasoning and ordered the lower court to vacate the arbitration decision.

This development is significant not only for the eight plaintiffs involved in the case but also for the broader crypto community. It reinforces a basic principle of market accountability: that access to the courts should not depend on accepting contractual terms from a platform that the alleged victim never used.