A former Argentine senator with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) says Binance’s facial ID system no longer recognizes him after the disease changed his appearance.
Esteban Bullrich, who served as Argentina’s education minister from 2015 to 2017 under former president Mauricio Macri, claimed that his virtual currency holdings were frozen by Bitcoin exchanges for five months ($BTC) fell from the $90,000 range to the $70,000 range.
Ultimately, Binance co-CEO Richard Teng personally intervened after his complaints spread on social media. .
Esteban, I saw your post and wanted to respond personally. I’m sorry this happened. I am committed to ensuring this accessibility gap is resolved for all users facing similar challenges. Thank you for your comments.
— Richard Teng (@_RichardTeng) April 28, 2026
The 56-year-old, who revealed his diagnosis in April 2021, wrote: Binance’s Face ID stopped recognizing him 5 months ago.
He said the company does not provide an accessible alternative for users with the same type of disability.
Fortunately, his post tagged with founders Changpeng Zhao and Teng caught their attention.
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Binance ID has 300 million users before ALS correction
According to the Argentine media outlet Clarin, which reported this story, Binance surpassed 300 million registered users in December 2025, three years after introducing biometric authentication in its mobile app in 2022.
But Mr. Bullrich’s lockout exposed a fundamental engineering oversight. ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that paralyzes muscles, including facial muscles.
Anyone designing a biometric ID stack should have expected that facial changes could occur due to muscle changes.
This oversight cost Bullrich dearly. $BTC It was trading above $90,000 in December 2025, when the lockout began, but has since fallen to the $70,000 range. Other digital assets have performed even worse.
Binance Argentina responded on the same day that Bullrich’s post went viral, saying the team was in direct contact.
He said the issue is a growing accessibility issue and needs to be fixed, and thanked them for speaking out.
This confession somewhat weakens the meaning of the apology. A viral social post leads us to publicly issue a statement that could not be resolved within 150 days in our regular support queue.
