Gaza-Based Crypto Exchange Sanctioned By US Treasury

Updated: 19 October 2023

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The US Treasury Department said a Gaza-based crypto exchange was included in a list of 10 Hamas-linked entities it has sanctioned following the militant group’s attack on Israel.

Buy Cash Money and Money Transfer Company has a history of enabling terrorism financing, it said in an Oct. 18 release.

It added that Israel’s National Bureau for Counter Terrorist Financing seized a number of wallets in connection to a Hamas fundraising campaign in June 2021 and one of the wallets belonged to the exchange.

“In addition to involvement in Hamas fundraising, Buy Cash has also been used to transfers funds by affiliates in other terrorist groups,” it said. “In September 2019, Buy Cash’s Bitcoin wallet 19D1iGzDr7FyAdiy3ZZdxMd6ttHj1kj6WW received a Bitcoin transfer equivalent to over $2,000. The transfer was facilitated by a Türkiye-based money services business operator and al-Qa’ida affiliate.”

Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic said it was aware of other wallet addresses used by the exchange. The wallet addresses have received over $30 million worth of crypto, including Bitcoin and Tether, since 2015, it said in a blog post. But it added that only a very small portion of the the funds have been linked with terrorism financing.

OFAC has today sanctioned Buy Cash, a cryptocurrency broker based in Gaza. A single Bitcoin address has been added to OFAC’s SDN List, however, Elliptic is aware of a number of other addresses used by the broker on the Bitcoin and other blockchains. https://t.co/Et2WVmT1gf

— Elliptic (@elliptic) October 18, 2023

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the US government is taking “swift and decisive action to target Hamas’s financiers and facilitators.”

JUST IN: 🇺🇸 US Senator Elizabeth Warren sends letter to White House claiming crypto is a national security threat being used to fund terrorism.

— Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) October 18, 2023

Some Reports Exaggerate Role of Crypto In Terrorism Financing, Chainalysis Says

Chainalysis has accused some reports of exaggerating the amount of crypto used in terrorism financing, and says recent estimates included funds “not explicitly related to terrorism financing.”

It referred to one address that allegedly obtained $82 million worth of crypto for terrorism financing and said only $450,000 worth of funds in the wallet came from a terror-affiliated wallet.