Elliptic has refuted a Wall Street Journal article from earlier in the month that said Hamas funded its attacks on Israel with cryptocurrencies. Democratic MPs who wanted to know if terrorist organizations were using cryptocurrency also mentioned the research. Blockworks earlier indicated that, based on expert interviews, the chance of crypto being utilized as a funding mechanism was minimal due to the nature of a public blockchain. Law enforcement can “successfully freeze crypto assets held by terrorist groups,” according to prior research from Elliptic. Elliptic claimed that the data provided by Elliptic and others had been misconstrued and that there is no evidence to corroborate the Journal’s assertion that Hamas had raised “millions” in cryptocurrency.
After tracking down a portion of the funds further, Elliptic reported that since October 7th, just $21,000 in bitcoin has been provided. However, because of the work of cryptocurrency businesses and researchers, a large portion of this money has been blocked, making it impossible for Gaza Now to use the monies. Following the letter authored by Senator Warren and one hundred other Democrats, Chainalysis demanded a more nuanced approach to the investigation of terrorist organisations’ possible use of cryptocurrency. Chainalysis stated that it is far more likely that the majority of the transactions received through the suspected service provider were unrelated, and that only a small percentage of the $82 million worth of cryptocurrency was meant for terrorist activity.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) allowed cryptocurrency donations a few years ago, and Crypto Aid Israel raised over $185,000 in cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency has also been used to raise money for charitable purposes.
