The military wing of Hamas, the Palestinian militant group classified as a terror organization by the United States and the United Kingdom, will no longer accept cryptocurrency donations. Here’s the latest on the situation.
Hamas Ceases Accepting Bitcoin Donations via Military Wing Since Safety is a Concern
Hamas has stopped accepting cryptocurrency contributions through the military division, known as Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. According to Shehab News Agency, which cited a reference posted by the Brigades to a Telegram group, Hamas had received Bitcoin donations, leveraging investments like Binance to play freely until its wallet has been locked. However, amid increased scrutiny and hostility towards anyone helping the resistance via cryptos, Hamas has revamped its work system to avoid abuse and exposure.
Reports show Israeli officials detained 84 crypto wallets believed to belong to Hamas that grasped virtual assets worth million of dollars, including XRP, ETH, XLM, and BTC, among others. Transactions via digital currencies, along with the development of blockchain, provide them some methods to improve anonymity, break boundary obstacles of receiving and sending remittances, bypass sanctions, and dodge money laundering rules. This makes the federal government, such as the US Israel, allegedly blame crypto terrorist financing for blockchain users’ international law evasion, enhanced anti-money laundering (AML) privacy guidelines, and disruptive policies.
Regarding Bitcoin’s legitimacy as a law-abiding type of money, it managed to establish decreasing involvement in criminal activities over the past year, which conceives endless surveillance in its network, reducing its demand amid cryptocurrencies’ fund-seeking expectations. Hamas’ alleged restrictions on cryptocurrency acceptance parallel other countries’ stand against them. Countries that do not allow cryptocurrencies to heighten terrorism finances used factors such as the deposit size for local banks to decrease business operations with the clients using digital assets.
[h/t Sandali Handagama]