Crypto Terror Funding to Hamas Might be Misinterpreted
The post Crypto Terror Funding to Hamas Might be Misinterpreted appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.
The debate around cryptocurrencies facilitating terrorism finance reignited with the recent attack of Hamas on Israel. Though the Jewish country countered the attack and managed to defend itself after damage, crypto assets found themselves under the continued attack with no help anytime soon. However, the recent analysis of crypto and blockchain investigating agencies might help digital assets to be proven innocent. Recently Elliptic, a prominent blockchain investigation platform, published a blog post highlighting that the involvement of cryptocurrencies in terror funding is misrepresented. It noted the scale presented by which Hamas might be using the digital assets is much bigger than what the terrorist group is able to use successfully in reality. Government agencies in the United States and Israel were actively hunting down the financial streams of the Gaza-based terrorist organization, Hamas. They have collectively found and seized multiple cryptocurrency wallets that allegedly belonged to the terrorist group. According to Elliptic, Hamas started accumulating donations in Bitcoin (BTC) in 2019. It stopped raising crypto donations publicly in April in order to keep donors’ identities hidden. However, these channels reactivated following the recent attack of Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023. Elliptic found that in the recent efforts, the group managed to accumulate $21,000 in cryptocurrency donations. However, a majority of this fund has already been seized due to regulatory steps taken by the agencies. Blaming Crypto Maybe Oversimplifying Several initial reports indicated the use of crypto assets by terrorist groups and it was called out all around the space. The demands for suitable actions against cryptocurrencies increased in the days to come. But Elliptic and Chainalysis findings have a different perspective. In the following days after Hamas’ attack on Israel, about a hundred lawmakers in the United States, including Senators and the House of Representatives from both parties,…
Filed under: News - @ October 27, 2023 4:16 am