According to reports, Hamas and the Islamic State have exploited accounts on the cryptocurrency market Binance to finance their operations. According to Reuters, Israeli police confiscated the accounts to combat terrorism on May 5.
Since 2021, Israel has confiscated around 190 accounts, with the National Bureau for Counter-Terror Financing (NBCTF) confiscating accounts as recently as January 12.
There’s no word on how much cryptocurrency was taken or if other exchanges were similarly examined. There is little information available other than the fact that police have concentrated on confiscating accounts on cryptocurrency exchanges.
Binance quickly replied to the Reuters article in a post titled “Our Response to Reuters.” According to the email, the publication was “deliberately leaving out critical facts to fit their narrative.”
Binance underlined that it does more than others to prevent bad actors from its trading platform. According to the exchange, “the true measures of compliance for a crypto exchange are the steps it takes to identify and react to suspicious deposits, and Binance is an industry leader in these areas.” When we become aware of inappropriate behaviour, we intervene and take necessary action, including freezing money and collaborating with law police to assist investigations.”
Governments throughout the globe have started to concentrate on preventing the cryptocurrency asset class from being used to support terrorism. The United Nations said in October 2022 that cryptocurrency was increasingly being utilized in terror funding.
Australia and India have also discussed this tendency and are taking appropriate measures. According to one Chainalysis assessment, money for illicit operations has doubled in the previous five years, reaching $20 billion.
Many of these funds have been transferred to internationally sanctioned organizations. A big amount of it was transferred to the Russian cryptocurrency exchange Garantex.
While striving to combat terrorist funding, Israel has also been working on crypto legislation. The country’s budget for 2023-24 contains crypto-related measures to make tax reporting simpler.
The Israel Securities Authority is also developing new classifications for digital assets that would put them within the government’s jurisdiction. This would aid in establishing investor protection, a major agenda item on every government’s crypto regulatory plans.
