In a surprising revelation, an ISIS affiliated website, has switched to Moreno (XMR) to accept donations from the public. Whitestream, a blockchain intelligence company, reported that the news website is affiliated with the terrorist group and the jihadist movement. It has updated its donations page in the last week of June to accept Monero.
As per a tutorial page published by the website, Monero is a more secure method of payment, which can hardly be traced. The page has also created a special segment which explains how users can buy and send Monero, while including the XMR address.
Before updating, the website accepted donations via Bitcoin. Whitestream reported that the organization consolidated the BTC it received into a single address, which currently contains 0.295 BTC worth about $2,700.
Furthermore, the website published reports of its success, which has been operating underground in Egypt’s Sinai region and in Northern Nigeria, since its ouster from Syria, Iraq and Libya
Cryptocurrency plays significant role in terrorism financing
Media reports convey that cryptocurrency plays a significant role in terrorism financing. There have been speculations that ISIS war chests hidden in Bitcoin but Chainanalysis said that less than $10,000 were raised for terrorism through crypto.
Earlier in March, a woman was sentenced to prison for 13 years in money laundering for terrorism via Bitcoin. Meanwhile, in other reports, ISIS experimented with switching to blockchain-based communication apps in December 2019.
