Crypto Wallets Financing Terrorism Seized by Israeli Authorities

30 crypto wallets and 12 accounts have been seized today in Israel in connection to terrorism funding. The Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz issued the seizure order.

The wallets are reportedly linked to the Al Mutahadun exchange firm, owned by the Giza-based Shamlach family. In 2021, the Al Mutahadun crypto exchange was labelled a terrorist organization for actively financing Hamas activities and personnel. Furthermore, the Shamlach companies, including the exchange, were used to transfer millions of dollars in funding form Iran to the Hamas organization.

A plethora of cryptocurrencies were used in order to complicate the tracking of transactions. Assets such as BTC, USDT, XRP, DOGE, and BNB were used to fund all sorts of illicit operations.

This is the third time that Israeli authorities have seized crypto used to funds terrorism activities. Local authorities have asserted that they will continue to stay vigilant by monitoring transactions on the blockchains used by the Shamlach family and other criminal entities in the conflicted region.

Terrorist groups turning to cryptocurrencies as means of financing their activities is not new information. This has being going on for years, and global authorities have strived to regulate these types of assets for these and other conflicting reasons. It is know, for instance, that the major terrorist organization Al-Qaeda has been turning to crypto donations via Telegram and Facebook for years now. Global authorities remain vigilant.