The US-designated terrorist Hamas said to be receiving funding through cryptocurrencies
Shafaq News / In a recent report by CNN, it has been revealed that Hamas, the Palestinian militant organization designated as a terrorist group by the United States and several other countries, is reportedly obtaining funding from individuals or entities by employing online cryptocurrencies.
Even before Hamas launched a sudden attack on Israel over the past weekend, officials from the US Department of Justice were already investigating criminal activities involving the armed group's use of cryptocurrencies, involving alleged "money launderers," as per CNN's sources.
Hamas's utilization of cryptocurrencies is one of several methods the organization, labeled as a terrorist group by the US and the EU, has employed to raise funds without being subjected to sanctions.
Yaya Fanusie, a former CIA analyst who is now a fellow at the Center on Economic and Financial Power in Washington, remarked, "There is no one-size-fits-all funding method for Hamas or other terrorist organizations."
He further noted, "They are opportunistic and adaptable," describing efforts to prevent the flow of money to such organizations as a "continual game of cat and mouse."
Despite governments' attempts to monitor such financial transactions, Hamas announced in April that its military wing would "stop collecting funds in the digital Bitcoin currency," as reported by Reuters.
However, it is evident that Hamas has not entirely ceased such efforts. Israeli authorities announced on Tuesday that they had frozen additional cryptocurrency accounts that the group is believed to have used to raise funds during its recent offensive, as reported by CNN.
Beyond Bitcoin, the Israeli government's findings indicate that Hamas also dealt with other cryptocurrencies, including Ethereum, Ripple, and Tether.
The American network highlighted that "the extent of the money Hamas received in cryptocurrencies is unclear, but there is evidence that they collected substantial amounts."
Dmitri Matshikhin, the CEO of the cryptocurrency analytics firm BitOK, stated, "Israeli authorities have seized nearly $41 million in cryptocurrency between 2020 and 2023," as reported by the Wall Street Journal just two days ago.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Hamas "openly sought to raise funds in cryptocurrencies since at least 2019 when the military wing, known as al-Qassam Brigades, started requesting Bitcoin donations from its supporters."
The group claimed to have received "around $30,000 worth of Bitcoin in that year."
In an interview with CNN, Arda Akartuna, a researcher at cryptocurrency analytics firm Elliptic, stated that Hamas is among the "most successful fundraisers through digital assets so far."
Akartuna noted that tracking cryptocurrencies linked to Hamas has been complicated due to the group's use of "single-use" wallet addresses created for individual donors, along with illicit money exchange operations that convert digital assets into cash anonymously without records.
