Connect with us

Published

on

The Israel-Gaza war has once again thrown the spotlight on crypto, with anti-crypto politicians seizing on exaggerated reports of crypto being used to finance terrorism to introduce harsh new legislation with the potential to crush the industry.

Three days after Hamas carried out its brutal Oct. 7 attack, The Wall Street Journal published an inflammatory article stating that in the past three years, U.S.-designated terrorist organizations such as Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah had raised $134 million in crypto.

The article — later corrected following an online backlash — became ammunition for the anti-crypto army in Washington, which cited it to push for ever greater restrictions on crypto.

That came to a head over the past week with a bipartisan bill called the Terrorism Financing Prevention Act, introduced on Dec. 8. It obliges the Treasury to identify foreign financial institutions and crypto platforms that have knowingly conducted transactions with U.S.-designated terrorist outfits and enables it to impose sanctions to restrict U.S. bank accounts and block transactions.

Senator Mitt Romney tied the bill specifically to the Israel-Gaza war:

“The Oct. 7 attacks on Israel perpetrated by Hamas have made it more urgent and necessary for the U.S. to counter the role that cryptocurrency plays in the financing of terrorism.” 

The war has also given new impetus to Senator Elizabeth Warren’s bipartisan Digital Asset AML Act (DAAMLA), which would extend the Bank Secrecy Act to cryptocurrencies. Five more senators signed up to cosponsor this bill on Dec. 11, and there are now 19 senators in total backing the legislation — or one in five senators — meaning it has gained serious traction. Galaxy’s head of firmwide research, Alex Thorn, argues “Warren’s bill would effectively outlaw crypto in America.”

Thorn believes that despite Warren’s poor record in getting bills passed, this one has a chance, given the “potent terrorism narrative post 10/7” and the “razor-thin R majority in House makes hard to thwart.”

Another earlier bill is also in play, the Crypto Asset National Security Enhancement (CANSEE) Act, which would dramatically increase surveillance over crypto transactions.

Warren appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box last week to claim that all the major bank CEOs agreed with her on the need for urgent action.

“We have a serious problem in this country,” she said. “And that is a part of the financial system is being used by terrorists, by drug traffickers, by rogue nations, in order to launder money, move money through the system and finance their illegal activities.”

She said Congress needed to update the Bank Secrecy Act to cover crypto “because there’s a new threat out there — it’s crypto, and it is being used for terrorist financing. It is being used for drug trafficking. North Korea is using it to pay for about half of its nuclear weapons program. We can’t allow that to continue.”

Of course, cutting off funding to terrorists and preventing money laundering are laudable aims. But the unintended consequences (some argue they are intentional) pose a serious threat to the industry.

Read also


Features

This is how to make — and lose — a fortune with NFTs


Features

US enforcement agencies are turning up the heat on crypto-related crime

The Blockchain Association’s Kristin Smith argues that applying the Bank Secrecy Act to crypto defeats “the entire purpose of blockchains” and believes the legislative clampdowns would push the vast majority of the industry overseas.

Referring to CANSEE and DAAMLA bills, Smith says, “Following any crisis — or sensational media report — Washington feels the urge to do something, which is understandable,” But, she warned:

“If enacted, these bills would effectively destroy the American digital asset industry.”

The link between terrorism and crypto is invariably hyped up by opponents. For example, Warren’s claim that “half” of North Korea’s nukes are financed by crypto hacks comes from a recent Recorded Future report. However, the report clearly shows the figure is speculative, and the authors admit “it is unclear exactly how much of the stolen cryptocurrency ends up directly financing ballistic missile launches.”

The original WSJ article was also wrong, as demonstrated by a more careful analysis of the methodology of WSJ’s sources from Castle Island Ventures’ Nic Carter, as well as Chainalysis. Most of the terror financing goes through crypto service providers, and the analysis confused the much larger pool of funds on the platform with the amount received by terrorism-linked addresses.

Supernova
Three hundred and sixty festivalgoers were murdered by Hamas on Oct. 7. (X)

In one instance, it appeared the WSJ had likely confused the total amount in a crypto service provider’s address ($82 million) with the funds probably unwittingly sent to a terror-affiliated wallet ($450,000). According to Chainalysis, the analysis had been conducted by amateurs:

“To the untrained eye, it might appear that $82 million worth of cryptocurrency was raised for terror financing in the example above. But it is much more likely that a small portion of these funds were intended for terrorist activity, and a majority of the funds processed through the suspected service provider were unrelated.”

The actual amount of crypto raised and received by terrorists in total was much smaller than the “as much as” $134 million cited. The WSJ reluctantly corrected its article but remained adamant that its main points were true.

One reason the story is such a beat-up is that U.S. regulators and Israel’s National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing (NBCTF) seized most crypto wallets used to launder the Hamas donations back in 2021.

They successfully identified donors, froze accounts, and shut down fundraising websites, which led Hamas to view cryptocurrency as “inconvenient” for its purposes and to limit itself to more traditional means of fundraising.

“In fact, it’s possible that no one understands the challenges of using cryptocurrency for fundraising better than Hamas,” notes Chainalysis. In April this year, Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, announced the shutdown of their longstanding cryptocurrency donation program, citing the likelihood of donors being caught and prosecuted.

Mati Greenspan, the Tel Aviv-based founder and CEO of Quantum Economics, explains, “It’s the very nature of the blockchain that allowed the Mossad to crack down on Hamas’ crypto activities in the first place.”

Andrew Fierman, the head of sanctions strategy at Chainalysis, agrees, noting that Hamas would happily raise money via any method it could, but crypto had not proved to be a good choice:

“Hamas has historically used and likely will continue to facilitate financing via traditional methods through the use of money services businesses (MSB), hawala and shell companies. Cryptocurrency is just another attempted method of financing. However, it has been shown time and time again to not be an effective approach.”

Crypto is involved in some terrorism funding

Nevertheless, the problem of crypto-terrorism funding exists, even if the media and its anti-crypto activists overstate it. Not only terrorist organizations but whole countries are involved. Fierman points out that “Iran has a sizable crypto economy, including many regional exchanges, and it has historically used all different kinds of financial mechanisms to fund groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.”

Iran is a major geopolitical player in the region that has been engaged in a proxy war with Israel for almost 40 years with a declared intention of getting rid of the Jewish state. In June 2023, Israel’s National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing (NBCTF) seized about $1.7 million worth of cryptocurrency from Hezbollah, a Lebanon terrorist group, and from their brothers in arms, Iran’s Quds Force.

Rather than use major currencies like Bitcoin and Ether, terrorists prefer smaller chains, and according to the Reuters analysis, NBCTF froze 143 wallets on Justin Sun’s Tron blockchain between July 2021 and October 2023 that it believed were connected to terrorists.

Gaza
Gaza during the ceasefire. (ICRC)

The battle is ongoing regarding donations to Hamas-linked charities, which raised an estimated 70% more than the period before the 7/10 attack (though there is no estimate for how much of that increase was in crypto). Fierman says thatblockchain analysis should be a constant work to get a whole-of-ecosystem understanding of threat actors.”

Regulators’ crypto/terrorism fears

Meanwhile, a raft of anti-crypto politicians in Washington — where crypto is rapidly turning into another front in the culture war — see blockchain itself as dangerous.

Senator Elizabeth Warren has proudly advertised her “anti-crypto army,” and the WSJ’s inaccurate reporting gave the army the ammunition it needs to once again push for greater regulations to crack down on the use of cryptocurrency for money laundering and terrorism financing.

Senator Warren, along with her colleague Roger Marshall, immediately wrote a letter to the president asking for stricter regulation of the crypto market: “As The Wall Street Journal reports, researchers who study Hamas’s financing said crypto remains one of a number of tools the group uses to raise funds […] We urge you to swiftly and categorically act to meaningfully curtail illicit crypto activity and protect our national security and that of our allies.”

Read also


Features

Basic and weird: What the Metaverse is like right now


Features

Year 1602 revisited: Are DAOs the new corporate paradigm?

The fact that the article was inaccurate did not give these legislators any pause for thought, and the Department of Justice’s subsequent $4.3-billion money-laundering settlement with Binance added fuel to the fire.

The attacks by Senators Warren, Chris Van Hollen and Lindsey Graham on the crypto market have been relentless, and they use any pretext to accuse the crypto industry of helping “bad countries” evade sanctions, fund weapons programs, support spying and enable cyberattacks. In that sense. the Israel-Gaza war is just the latest pretext, and if not that, it would be something else.

And it seems that regulators are going to press further. In late November, Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo wrote in a letter to Congress:

“As terrorists, transnational criminals, and rogue states turn to digital assets to finance their activities, we need to build an enforcement regime that is capable of preventing this activity.”

He asked for more power to crack down on illicit activity in crypto, such as jurisdiction over USD stablecoins, new crypto financial institution category under BSA and new secondary sanctions.

For some market players, that means an unprecedented level of transparency. For example, the Binance exchange will have to submit to a “crazy” regulation for the sake of preserving its business. “What was once a haven for anarchic crypto commerce is about to be transformed into the opposite: perhaps the most fed-friendly business in the cryptocurrency industry, retroactively offering more than a half-decade of users’ transaction records to U.S. regulators and law enforcement,” writes Andy Greenspan in Wired

Proponents argue that the example of Hamas, which was forced to drop crypto donations due to the danger of prosecution, shows that the transparency of blockchain is itself a weapon against terrorism financing. Government agencies and private sector organizations should use blockchain analysis to trace terrorism financing and focus on safety and compliance on the part of all market participants.

There is a certain irony in freedom-hating terrorists embracing crypto, which was created by libertarians, says Quantum Economics’ Greenspan.

“Ultimately, Hamas hates freedom. In Hamas-controlled Gaza, there is no freedom of religion or women’s rights. Gays are executed publicly on a regular basis, and there have not been any elections or even opinion polls since they took control of the strip since they defeated Fatah in 2007.”

“The notion that they are using Bitcoin, which is a monetary system based on freedom, is a bit ironic. It’s as Milton Friedman famously said when predicting Bitcoin in 1999: ‘Of course it has its negative side, the gangsters, people engaged in illegal transactions will have an easier way to carry out their business,’ but ultimately, good always triumphs over evil.”

Community building and cybersecurity

While the terrorist attack and the fears of regulators have a negative impact on the industry, there is also a positive side to crypto, which has made it easier to get aid to victims of the Oct. 7 atrocities.

Immediately after Hamas’ attack, the crypto and Web3 communities created the humanitarian decentralized initiative Crypto Aid Israel. Itai Elizur, the chief operating officer and partner at MarketAcross/InboundJunction and a contributor to Crypto Aid, explains, “It has not only collected money but also increased awareness and made the local system excited by working together.”

While there are other numerous Jewish funds raising money in crypto, they were established prior to the conflict, unlike Crypto Aid Israel. The platform is organized as a multisignature wallet, and it collects donations in Bitcoin, Ether and stablecoins.

Funds are used to rebuild settlements in southern Israel and help the families of those killed and kidnapped, of soldiers, and of those who repelled terrorist attacks in the early days of the conflict. Over $240,000 was collected in less than a month.

Non-institutional cryptocurrency fundraising first came to prominence to raise donations for Ukraine. As of July, $227 million in cryptocurrency has been raised for Ukraine, including $134 million for humanitarian needs and $91 million for military-oriented campaigns.


Elizur says, “The first issue for us was to create trust because there are bad actors doing the same, but there are a lot of mechanisms now with which people are trying to stop them.” Banks and regulators in Israel act as intermediaries between the platform and the recipients’ bank accounts, though Elizur says it was not easy to get permission to transfer the money into Israeli banks.

The furor over Hamas raising funds in crypto has stymied any chance of a similar fund being set up to aid civilians in Gaza affected by the war. Very few charity funds helping people in Gaza (Islamic Aid, Medical Aid for Palestinians, etc.) suggest donating in crypto, except Save The Children, which gathers not only for Gaza but also for Somalia and other countries at risk.

Other ramifications of the war… on crypto

Just like the aftermath of the Russia-Ukraine invasion in 2022, which saw the global cybersecurity market grow 11.6% in the second quarter of 2023, the latest Israel-Hamas conflict could boost the cybersecurity industry. Intelligence agencies are closely watching the blockchain for suspicious transfers, bad actors and illicit funds.

Global tensions ramping up due to the conflict have the potential to stimulate demand for Bitcoin as a safe-haven asset, a hedge against economic downturns. While the price has certainly skyrocketed 55% since the start of the conflict, most observers believe the main factor is speculation over the imminent approval of a Bitcoin ETF in the United States.

But as Greenspan points out, it’s not a bad use case: “The longer the war goes on and the more it spreads, the more this dynamic is likely to play out. I can emphatically say that the correlation between Bitcoin and the stock market that developed during COVID and the 2021 bull run has now broken down completely.”

As for Israel, the conflict is not long and widespread enough yet to raise the need for BTC as a decentralized payment tool beyond governments, although Iran has already been using BTC as a tool for evading sanctions while making oil transactions during the U.S.-Iran conflict in 2021.

The country is so far spared from the scale of inflation that would incentivize people to switch to BTC from the national currency, like in Turkey, where the national currency crashed in 2021 and has not recovered since. And the Middle East conflict so far has not seen a stream of migrants with a need for substitute banking instruments, as we saw in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Nevertheless, if the conflict becomes more intense, with multiple parties involved, it may have a bigger impact on BTC demand.

Ksenia Buksha

Continue Reading

Politics

Australia’s finance watchdog to crack down on dormant crypto exchanges

Published

on

By

Australia’s finance watchdog to crack down on dormant crypto exchanges

Australia’s finance watchdog to crack down on dormant crypto exchanges

Australia’s financial intelligence agency has told inactive registered crypto exchanges to withdraw their registrations or risk having them canceled over fears that the dormant firms could be used for scams.

There are currently 427 crypto exchanges registered with the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC), but the agency said on April 29 that it suspects a significant number are inactive and possibly vulnerable to being bought and co-opted by criminals.

The agency is contacting any so-called digital currency exchanges (DCEs) that appear to no longer be trading, and AUSTRAC CEO Brendan Thomas said they’ll be told to “use it or lose it.”

“Businesses registered with AUSTRAC are required to keep their details up to date; this includes details about services that are no longer provided,” he added.

Australia’s finance watchdog to crack down on dormant crypto exchanges
AUSTRAC CEO Brendan Thomas says scammers can use inactive crypto firms to appear legitimate. Source: AUSTRAC

Businesses wanting to offer Australians conversions between cash and crypto, including crypto ATM providers, must first register with AUSTRAC, which monitors for crimes including money laundering, terror financing and tax evasion.

The agency can cancel a registration if it has reasonable grounds to believe the business is no longer active or offering crypto-related services.

Ten firms have had their AUSTRAC registration canceled since 2019, with the most recent being FTX Express in June 2024, the local subsidiary of the collapsed crypto exchange FTX.

AUSTRAC to launch public list of registered exchanges 

Following its blitz on inactive crypto exchanges, AUSTRAC said it will publish a list of registered exchanges to help Australians verify legitimate providers.

Thomas said the goal is to make it harder for criminals to scam people and improve the integrity and accuracy of AUSTRAC’s register.

“If a DCE does intend to offer a service, they need to contact us otherwise we will cancel the registration and this information will be added to the register,” he said.

“Members of the public should feel confident that they can identify legitimate cryptocurrency providers that are registered and subject to regulatory oversight and that we are driving criminals out of this industry,” Thomas added. 

Related: Australia’s top court sides with Block Earner, dismisses ASIC appeal

In February, the Anti-Money Laundering regulator took action against 13 remittance service providers and crypto exchanges, with over 50 others still being investigated regarding possible compliance issues.

Six providers were refused registration renewal on the grounds that key personnel were either convicted, prosecuted, or charged with a serious offense.

Australia has yet to pass crypto regulations. In August 2022, the ruling center-left Labor Party initiated a series of industry consultations to draft a crypto regulatory framework.

In March, the government proposed a new crypto framework regulating exchanges under existing financial services laws ahead of a federal election slated for May 3.

Magazine: SEC’s U-turn on crypto leaves key questions unanswered

Continue Reading

Politics

Crush fly-tippers’ vans, government tells councils

Published

on

By

Crush fly-tippers' vans, government tells councils

The government wants councils to crush more vans used to fly-tip rubbish, as it announces a crackdown on the illegal dumping of waste.

No new funding is being given to local authorities for the initiatives, with ministers saying the seven percent raise announced in the budget can be used.

As part of the announcement, the government has also proposed that fly-tippers could face up to five years in prison, although this would require a change in the law.

Environment Secretary Steve Reed arriving in Downing Street, London, for a Cabinet meeting, ahead of Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves delivering her spring statement to MPs in the House of Commons. Picture date: Wednesday March 26, 2025. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: James Manning/PA Wire
Image:
Environment Secretary Steve Reed attacked the Conservatives’ record. Pic: PA

Politics Hub: Follow latest updates

Environment Secretary Steve Reed said: “Councils will get much more aggressive against fly-tippers and that includes using the latest technology, things like the new mobile CCTV cameras and drones to identify, track and then seize the vehicles that are being used for fly-tipping to a yard like this and crush them.

“That’s both as a punishment for those people who are dumping the rubbish but also as a deterrent for those who are thinking about doing it.”

He added: “We’re also looking to change the law so that those rogue operators who take rubbish from someone’s home and then dump it on a nearby road – they were getting away almost scot-free under the previous government – they will now be looking at potentially five-year prison sentences.”

More on Labour

The minister claimed the fly-tipping was “out of control” under the last government.

Data from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) shows local authorities in England dealt with a record 1.15 million incidents last year – a 20% increase from 2018/19.

Environment Agency chief executive Philip Duffy said: “We’re determined to bring these criminals to justice through tough enforcement action and prosecutions.

“That’s why we support the government’s crackdown on waste criminals, which will ensure we have the right powers to shut rogue operators out of the waste industry.”

However, the Conservatives claimed that rubbish is “piling high” in areas like Birmingham as refuse workers strike against a pay and jobs offer from the Labour-run council.

👉Listen to Politics at Sam and Anne’s on your podcast app👈

Read more:
Gangs ‘make millions’ from waste
Village blocked by rubbish

Shadow environment secretary Victoria Atkins said: “Wherever Labour is in charge, waste is piling high – like in Birmingham, where Labour’s inability to stand up to their union paymasters has left rat-infested rubbish littered across the street.

“And with statistics showing that of the 50 worst local areas for fly-tipping, 72% are Labour controlled, it is clear that voting Labour gets you rubbish and rats.

“So the British public deserve real action, not this series of reheated announcements and policies already introduced by previous governments that Labour is peddling.”

Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: “Under the Conservatives’ watch, local communities have been plagued by a fly-tipping epidemic.

“From overflowing bins to piles of hazardous waste, fly-tipping is blighting our landscapes, poisoning livestock on farming land and causing misery for residents.

“Enough is enough.

“The Liberal Democrats are calling for a fly-tipping fighting fund, to push for stronger local enforcement and tougher penalties for offenders.”

Continue Reading

Politics

US Senate majority leader expects stablecoin vote before May 26 — Report

Published

on

By

US Senate majority leader expects stablecoin vote before May 26 — Report

US Senate majority leader expects stablecoin vote before May 26 — Report

US Senate Majority Leader John Thune reportedly told Republican lawmakers that the chamber would address a bill on stablecoin regulation before the May 26 Memorial Day holiday.

According to an April 29 Politico report, Thune made the comments in a closed-door meeting with Republican senators, who hold a slim majority in the chamber. The Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins, or GENIUS Act, was introduced by Senator Bill Hagerty in February and passed the Senate Banking Committee in March.

Thune did not mention any crypto or blockchain-related bills in his public comments on US President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office. Since his Jan. 20 inauguration, Trump has signed several executive orders with the potential to affect US crypto policy, including one affecting stablecoins. Still, many of the actions do not carry the force of law without an act of Congress.

Related: $649B stablecoin transfers linked to illicit activity in 2024: Report

The proposed GENIUS bill could essentially restrict any entity other than a “permitted payment stablecoin issuer” from issuing a payment stablecoin in the United States. The House of Representatives, also controlled by Republicans, has proposed a companion bill to the legislation: the Stablecoin Transparency and Accountability for a Better Ledger Economy, or STABLE Act.

Trump accused of conflicts of interest over stablecoins, crypto ventures

The president’s executive order, signed on Jan. 23, established a working group to study the potential creation and maintenance of a national crypto stockpile and a regulatory framework for stablecoins. Republican lawmakers followed by introducing the STABLE and GENIUS acts.

Trump also introduced the order before World Liberty Financial, a crypto firm backed by the president’s family, launched its US-dollar pegged USD1 stablecoin. Many Democratic lawmakers said that Trump’s ties to the firm, coupled with his political influence and position, could present an “extraordinary conflict of interest that could create unprecedented risks to our financial system” as Congress considers the two stablecoin bills.

Magazine: Trump’s crypto ventures raise conflict of interest, insider trading questions

Continue Reading

Trending