Gaza Now and its founder have been sanctioned for facilitating monetary donations for Hamas within the wake of the October 7 assault in Israel
Elliptic discovered that Gaza Now acquired $21,000 in crypto-denominated donations within the weeks after the assault
Crypto donations proceed to be a small slice of the general terrorist financing panorama, with most donations are below $500 in line with a brand new report from TRM Labs
Gaza Now, a pro-Hamas on-line media channel, has been collectively sanctioned by the U.S. and the UK for facilitating public fundraising for Hamas within the wake of the October 7 assault in Israel.
The U.S. Treasury Division’s Workplace of Overseas Asset Management (OFAC) and the U.Okay.’s Workplace of Overseas Sanctions Implementation additionally issued sanctions in opposition to Gaza Now’s founder, Mustafa Ayash, in addition to one other individual and two different entities they declare had been working with Gaza Now on a number of fundraising efforts, itemizing a number of cryptocurrency addresses Ayash and Gaza Now used to lift funds.
The sanctions in opposition to Gaza Now and its founder are the newest in a string of comparable sanctions in opposition to different ‘monetary facilitators’ it has mentioned are supporting Hamas – together with Purchase Money, a Gaza-based crypto trade and its proprietor in October 2023.
“Treasury stays dedicated to degrading Hamas’ capacity to finance its terrorist actions, together with via on-line fundraising campaigns that search to funnel cash on to the group,” mentioned Beneath Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Monetary Intelligence Brian E. Nelson in a Wednesday press assertion. “The US, in shut coordination with our British companions, will proceed to leverage our instruments to disrupt Hamas’ capacity to facilitate additional assaults.”
As a part of its fundraising makes an attempt, Gaza Now accepted crypto donations. However crypto made up solely a small slice of its general efforts: in line with blockchain analysis agency Elliptic, the group solely acquired $21,000 in crypto within the weeks after October 7.
The determine tracks with new analysis from one other blockchain analysis agency, TRM Labs, which discovered that crypto-denominated fundraising for Hamas and different terrorist organizations, together with ISIS, tends to be small in scale.
In line with TRM’s 2023 Illicit Crypto Financial system Report, three-quarters of terrorism-linked donations final yr had been below $500 – and 40% had been below $100. Solely 3% of crypto donations had been over $5,000.
Learn extra: U.S. Treasury Debunks Narrative That Hamas Relied on Crypto to Fund Terrorism
Of the terrorist financing entities utilizing crypto, nonetheless, Tether (USDT) on the TRON blockchain was the preferred alternative in 2023, with a 125% enhance in TRON addresses linked to terrorist financing final yr, in line with the TRM report.
In line with the report, terrorist financing entities may very well be drawn to TRON for its comparatively low fuel charges, minimal worth fluctuations and “a residual – however outdated – notion that it’s harder to hint.”
Nikhilesh De edited this story.