The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has seized more than $200,000 in Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies from several digital wallets and accounts linked to the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
According to the FBI, more than $1.5 million in crypto — largely in the form of donations from Hamas supporters around the world — has flowed through the seized wallets and accounts since last autumn. The wallet addresses were promoted in an online group chat claiming to be associated with Hamas and the crypto donations were laundered through a series of crypto exchanges and virtual transactions.
“These seizures show that this office will search high and low for every cent of money going to fund Hamas, wherever it is found, and in whatever form of currency,” said U.S. Attorney Edward R. Martin Jr. in a news release. “Hamas is responsible for the death of many U.S. and Israeli nationals, and we will stop at nothing to stop their campaign of terror and murder.”
Following the Money
Approximately $90,000 in crypto was seized from an undisclosed number of wallets, and another $112,000 was taken from three exchange accounts, according to the FBI. Most of the crypto accounts were registered to Palestinian individuals living in Turkey, said the law enforcement agency.
The U.S. Treasury Department and other foreign governments have previously sanctioned Hamas-linked financial networks and seized Hamas crypto accounts. In April 2023, Israel’s Defense Ministry seized nearly 200 cryptocurrency accounts tied to various Palestinian groups.
According to the U.S. government, Hamas has been using cryptocurrencies to move money since 2020 in an effort to evade financial monitoring and detection.
Is BTC a Buy?
Most Wall Street firms don’t offer ratings or price targets on Bitcoin, so we’ll look at the cryptocurrency’s three-month performance instead. As one can see in the chart below, the price of BTC has declined 8.31% in the last 12 weeks.
