$1.7m in Crypto Supposedly Used for Terrorism is Now Seized by Israel

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Following the orders by the Defense Minister of Israel- Yoav Gallant, the Israeli forces seized about $1.7 million worth of cryptocurrency in an unprecedented event.

Crypto Seized From Wallets Linked to Iran and its Lebanon Ally.

$1.7 million worth of cryptocurrency was wiped out from a digital wallet linked to the Iranian military and Hezbollah. Gallant said that Hezbollah is a Lebanese militant group that has substantial backing from the Iranian government.

While addressing the National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing in Israel, Gallant announced that this was the first time Israel had carried out a crypto seizure of this magnitude, and that too against Iran. The crypto assets were handled by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Hezbollah and supposedly were used for terrorism activities.

Seizure Carried out with the Help of Chainalysis

The seizure was carried out weeks after Defence Minister Gallant issued the order. According to Gallant, these crypto assets were used by the Iranian military and Hezbollah for terrorism purposes. Gallant approved the move and ordered that the seized funds should be handed over to the Israeli government.

The operation was made successful by Mossad, a well-known spy agency in Israel, Israel’s military intelligence, and the police. Israel’s government also took help from Chainalysis, which is a crypto investigation firm.

Seized Cryptocurrencies were all in USDT

According to the reports by Chainalysis, the seized cryptocurrency was all in USDT (Tether) on the TRON network. Tether is deemed a safe digital asset in the cryptocurrency space.

Its value is pegged to the price of the US dollar, irrespective of the market condition. The idea is to ensure that the value of Tether remains the same as its peg. This is why it is considered a stablecoin.

Check out our guide on how to buy Tether.

Cryptocurrency Being Used for Terrorism

Gallant said that cryptocurrencies had been increasingly used to fund the daily activities of the Lebanese group Hezbollah, Iran’s IRGC, and “Syrian elements”. According to this, the funds get transferred to terror groups from third parties with the help of money exchangers.

The current seizure followed the same pattern. As per the analysis, the funds were transferred from financial facilitators to Hawala services and brokers. From there, it was moved to Hezbollah addresses. In total, a list of 40 such addresses have been recovered from the seizure.

BIG | Israel 🇮🇱 seizes #cryptocurrency said to be used to finance Hezbollah and Iran’s 🇮🇷 Revolutionary Guard

🔵 The Israeli government said Tuesday that it seized millions of dollars in cryptocurrency from accounts that had sent or received funds in alleged financing schemes… pic.twitter.com/ElTQkAF6ht

— Resonant News🌍 (@Resonant_News) June 29, 2023

He also pointed out that this time, funds moved from Iran, which made its stand clear as a “financier, trainer, and spreader of terrorism” with the help of its ally groups such as Hezbollah.

All the seized funds are to be handed over to the Israeli government, and it is not yet clear what the government plans to do with it.

This is not the first time Israel has tackled financial terrorism, though. Previously, Israel’s government had seized around 200 Binance accounts which were linked to tourist groups such as Palestinian Hamas and Daesh, and other Islamic State.

Conclusion

Cryptocurrency has a high level of encryption and security, which makes it very difficult to trace. The transactions are permissionless and do not operate by a central authority. They can easily mask the identity of the users, thus giving freedom to the token holders to use it as they please.

This high level of anonymity could be the reason why they are increasingly used for financial crimes and other illegal activities such as terrorism. In addition to this, many groups linked to terrorism are prohibited by the international financial system because of their previous records; this is why digital assets seem more convenient to them.

However, as the cryptocurrency industry gets more regularised and scrutinized by the US Government, we believe that digital assets funded by illegal activities will stop – or at least drop.

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