US Treasury Probes $165M Crypto Transactions Linked to Hamas Support – A recent Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report indicates that the U.S. Treasury Department is conducting an investigation into cryptocurrency transactions valued at $165 million suspected of providing support to Hamas, the Palestinian militant group.
Deputy Treasury Secretary Adewale Adeyemo disclosed these findings in a letter, which was based on an examination of suspicious activity reports filed between January 2020 and October 2023. Adeyemo’s correspondence, directed to the leaders of the Senate Banking and House Financial Services Committees, advocated for backing legislation to enhance the Treasury Department’s oversight jurisdiction regarding cryptocurrency transactions.
The letter highlighted that the $165 million amount might not exclusively pertain to cryptocurrency or Hamas, as financial institutions could have reported the cumulative value of a customer’s transactions, encompassing both conventional and digital assets, as associated with Hamas, even if only a portion of the reported activity was linked to the group.
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Adeyemo expressed apprehensions regarding the potential for terrorist organizations like Hamas to increasingly resort to cryptocurrencies for funding as their access to traditional financial channels diminishes. However, he acknowledged that the Treasury Department evaluates Hamas and other terrorist entities’ inclination towards traditional financial products and services.
Based on an inquiry conducted by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), over 200 cryptocurrency addresses have been pinpointed as potentially linked to these transactions. The Treasury Department is presently undertaking an ongoing assessment of the potential risks posed by cryptocurrencies and associated services.
The Treasury Department’s scrutiny focused on transactions recorded with U.S. institutions that could have provided support to Hamas before its October 7 assault on Israel. FinCEN’s correspondence implies that the reported utilization of cryptocurrency by the militant group might have been overstated, though the exact sum remains undisclosed.
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U.S. legislators have been deliberating for some time on the role of cryptocurrency in financing terrorism, particularly regarding sanctions against Hamas. Earlier, a coalition of lawmakers, led by House leaders, urged President Joe Biden for more information on Hamas’s cryptocurrency usage through a formal letter.
This move highlighted significant apprehensions about Hamas’s ability to utilize digital assets for funding its activities, citing reports indicating that approximately $41 million and $93 million were connected to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad between August 2021 and June 2023. However, it remains uncertain how much of the identified digital assets are accessible to Hamas or still under its control.
