Since May, bitcoin from Hamas’ wallets has been sent to Binance through three transactions, the latest of which happened as recently as June 6.
We have a strong track record of assisting law enforcement agencies around the world,” Jung added.
Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported bitcoin donations to Hamas surged during the latest escalation of the armed conflict in Gaza, citing an unnamed Hamas commander.
Pamela Clegg, VP of Financial Investigations at CipherTrace, said the firm was able to identify the recent donations, which were sent both to wallets that had been identified by the U.S.
“Nearly 100 of these identified addresses have received payments totaling just shy of two bitcoin during the month of May, specifically since the start of the most recent conflict.
That global exchange was Binance, according to the Crystal Blockchain analytic system.
According to the DOJ, al-Qassam Brigades have been raising funds in bitcoin since 2019, first using an account on Coinbase, then a non-custodial wallet and finally, a sophisticated software generating unique addresses for new donations.
For the past several years, Hamas has been using accounts on exchanges including Coinbase, Binance, Bittrex, Poloniex, Bitstamp, Huobi and CEX.io, as well as wallet provide Xapo, according to Crystal’s data.
“We noticed a noteworthy increase in the number of payments to Hamas, which resulted in over $80,000 in BTC received by the Hamas group over the past month,” Kyrylo Chykhradze, product director at Crystal Blockchain, told CoinDesk.
“More than $73,000 has been donated since the start of the most recent spate of violence.
The leader in news and information on cryptocurrency, digital assets and the future of money, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies.