Good day everyone,
I hope you are all well and having excellent day, welcome to CryptoGod-1’s blog on all things crypto. In this post I will be writing about the recent investigations which uncovered $41 million worth of crypto being sent to Hamas prior to their recent attack on Israel.
Hamas Crypto
The Israeli government has began investigations, which include seizure orders and based off of blockchain analytics, to indicate that militant groups such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Hezbollah have received millions of dollars in crypto financing prior to their attack on Israel.
The Wall Street Journal went on to note that crypto wallets linked to PIJ had seen as much as $93 million in cryptocurrency between August 2021 and June 2023, which was revealed from the analysis done by crypto researcher Elliptic. During a similar timeframe crypto wallets linked to Hamas have received approximately $41 million in cryptocurrency.
However, given the recent attack by Hamas on Israel, many have come to question the intelligence agencies and cyber capabilities of the nation given their inability to intercept the attack on their nation.
While the groups are designated as foreign terrorist organisations and therefore subject to sanctions, Hamas, PIJ, and Hezbollah all managed to continue raising donations to help fund their weaponry. One needs to take a pinch of salt when considering that the cryptocurrency raised was used directly for weapons, and the Israeli authorities did attempt to freeze any crypto wallets linked to Hamas which had been soliciting for donations on social media platforms. It is also unclear exactly how much crypto the authorities managed to seize.
It has also emerged that Hamas have been seeking donations via crypto since at least 2019, with Telegram a primary use for requesting bitcoin donations. The group have evolved their tactics over time, with payment processors used to generate cryptocurrency addresses and obscure the true source of their funds. This makes tracking and catching the crypto particularly difficult for authorities, and adds further obstacles to the investigation.
Cryptocurrency is not the only method of fundraising used by the militant groups, but it does create a unique and difficult challenge for authorities. Compared to the previous methods of smuggling physical currency across borders, which can be risky to say the least, cryptocurrency allows for a discreet and efficient means of transferring funds.
According to a report last April by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, many decentralised finance (DeFi) services have failed to implement anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) obligations. However, given the decentralised nature of these exchanges, it can be particularly tough for some jurisdictions to implement the requirements in the realm of DeFi. It is also important to be aware that some of the DeFi services are not subject to existing AML/CFT regulations
Have a great day.
Peace. CryptoGod-1.
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