More than 100 bitcoin accounts have been frozen as part of Israel’s campaign to halt funding to Hamas, a terrorist organization that garnered more than $40 million through similar sites between 2021 and 2023.
According to sources quoted by The Financial Times on Tuesday, October 17, Israel’s law enforcement services have requested the suspension of accounts on Binance and a closure inspection of roughly 200 since October 7.
Binance complied with the account closures and stated that it follows internationally recognized sanctions regulations, but declined to comment further.
It comes after Israeli research firms reported yesterday that Hamas acquired a large amount of funds through cryptocurrency platforms.
Tether, a cryptocurrency issuer, locked 32 digital wallets totaling $800,000 as part of the effort yesterday.
According to Israeli intelligence, links to Hamas crypto fundraising sites have appeared often since the October 7 attack on Israel.
According to BitOK, a Tel Aviv-based corporation, Hamas and its military arm collected almost $41 million in digital currencies between August 2021 and June 2023. Elliptic, another crypto research firm, discovered that wallets tied to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another recognized terror group, acquired about $91 million during the same time period, according to the Wall Street Journal.
