Cryptocurrency accounts frozen in Hamas funding blow

Israel has begun a crackdown on hundreds of cryptocurrency ­accounts used by Hamas to fund terror attacks.

As well as attacking the military infrastructure of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Israeli is also closing its cryptocurrency ­accounts. Picture: AFP

Israel has begun a crackdown on hundreds of cryptocurrency ­accounts used by Hamas to fund terror attacks.

The group has been known to publicly advertise links on social media websites asking for donations.

Once the donation has been made, Hamas can use cryptocurrency exchanges such as Binance, which function like bureaus de change, to turn the digital tokens into regular currency which can then be transferred into a bank ­account.

More than 100 accounts on ­Binance have been shut since ­October 7, when Hamas killed at least 1300 people in the worst day of Jewish bloodshed since the Holocaust. A spokesman for Binance confirmed the closure of a small number of accounts since the summer.

Israeli officials have identified another 200 suspicious accounts and are requesting further documents, according to the Financial Times. Hamas is sanctioned in most western countries because of its designation as a terrorist organisation, freezing it out of the international banking system and restricting its ability to raise funds.

To bypass those sanctions, the group has relied on cryptocurrencies, raising $A65m in donations between August 2021 and June 2023, according to BitOK, a crypto analytics firm based in Tel Aviv.

The last significant conflict between Israel and Hamas, in 2021, led to a surge of cryptocurrency donations to Hamas. Israel is trying to prevent another.

Tether, the third most popular cryptocurrency behind bitcoin and ethereum, has said it froze 32 accounts holding $A1.3m because of links to “illicit activity in Israel and Ukraine”. A report by Elliptic, another analytics firm cited by The Wall Street Journal, said a Russian cryptocurrency exchange, Garantex, was used to transfer dollars $A145m to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an organisation that joined Hamas in the assaults, prior to October 7.

THE TIMES