Binance face ID locked out ALS patient for 5 months

A former Argentine senator with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) says Binance’s facial ID system stopped recognizing him after the disease changed his appearance.

Esteban Bullrich, who served as Argentina’s Minister of Education from 2015 to 2017 under former president Mauricio Macri, claimed the exchange froze his crypto holdings for five months while bitcoin (BTC) declined from the $90,000s to the $70,000s.

Eventually, Binance co-CEO Richard Teng personally intervened after his complaint went viral on social media. .

The 56-year-old, who revealed his diagnosis in April 2021, wrote that Binance’s Face ID had stopped recognizing him five months ago.

He said the company offered no accessible alternative for users with his type of disability. 

Fortunately, his post, tagged to founder Changpeng Zhao and Teng, gained their attention.

Read more: US Senator asks if Binance lied to Congress about Iran

300 million users before a Binance ID fix for ALS

Binance crossed 300 million registered users in December 2025 three years after it rolled out biometric authentication on its mobile app in 2022, according to Clarín, the Argentine outlet that broke the story.

Bullrich’s lockout, however, exposed a basic engineering oversight. ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that paralyzes muscles, including those in the face.

Anyone designing a biometric identity stack should have anticipated that faces sometimes morph due to muscular changes.

This oversight cost Bullrich dearly. BTC was trading above $90,000 in December 2025 when his lockout began, and has since slid into the $70,000s. Other digital assets have performed even worse.

Binance Argentina replied on the same day Bullrich’s post went viral, saying its team was reaching out directly.

It said it was escalating the matter as an accessibility failure that needed correcting and thanked him for speaking up.

That admission somewhat undercuts the apology. A viral social post forces a public statement that the ordinary support queue couldn’t fix in 150 days.

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