KEY POINTS
- Hamas received around $41 million in crypto donations between August 2021 and June 2023, according to the Wall Street Journal
- Its ally, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, reportedly got approximately $93 million in crypto donations at around the same time
- Crypto is just “a very small part of Hamas’ fundraising strategy,” as per Ari Redbord of TRM Labs
Hamas, the Islamist militant movement and one of the two major political parties in Palestinian territories, reportedly received millions of dollars in cryptocurrency donations before its devastating attack against Israel that killed at least 700 individuals.
The Palestinian organization, which is considered a terrorist group by many Western countries and their allies, got around $41 million worth of crypto donations between August 2021 and June 2023, the Wall Street Journal claimed in a report based on data from forensics firm Elliptic and Tel Aviv software company BitOK.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an ally of Hamas, reportedly received approximately $93 million in crypto at around the same time.
Transactions linked to Hamas were traced back to Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange platform by trading volume, which in effect worked with Israeli authorities in freezing and seizing multiple accounts associated with Hamas.
Israeli authorities reportedly urged the cryptocurrency exchange platform to withdraw the seized funds and move them into Israel’s state treasury.
“The Israel Police, Ministry of Defense and other partners will continue the fight against terrorist financing and targeting the strategic financial assets of terrorist organizations,” the Israeli Police said Tuesday following the freezing and seizure of the supposed Hamas-linked crypto accounts.
The Israel Police’s Cyber Unit, in collaboration with the Ministry of Defense, the Israel Security Agency, and other national intelligence agencies, has successfully frozen cryptocurrency accounts used by Hamas for fundraising their activities pic.twitter.com/PrUV4ybrxZ
— Israel Police (@israelpolice) October 10, 2023
The use of cryptocurrency by terror groups and organizations trying to evade financial sanctions across the globe is nothing new.
Hamas is believed to be one of the “most prolific” groups when it comes to raising funds via crypto.
“Hamas has been among the most prolific, raising millions of dollars in crypto alongside other Palestinian militant groups,” David Carlisle, vice president at Elliptic, said.
Israeli authorities have so far seized around 190 Binance accounts allegedly linked to terror groups since 2021. They also worked with the crypto exchange platform in June to take down these controversial crypto accounts.
Despite these efforts from Israeli authorities, it appears that they were not able to completely stop the stream of funds flowing into Hamas and other affiliated groups.
“This is not an easy task,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said, according to WSJ.
It is worth noting, however, that Hamas’ fundraising strategy is not limited to the use of cryptocurrency.
“Crypto is a very small part of Hamas’ fundraising strategy. It’s mostly state-sponsored,” Ari Redbord, head of legal and government affairs at TRM Labs, said, as per CoinDesk. “There’s a focus on it because you are trying to cut off financing by any means. But it’s a relatively small part of the picture.”
