Crypto donations raised by Hamas ‘remain tiny,’ says Elliptic

cointelegraph.com:

Blockchain forensic firm Elliptic says there’s “no evidence” that Hamas is receiving a significant volume of cryptocurrency donations to fund its attacks against Israel.

“There is no evidence to support the assertion that Hamas has received significant volumes of crypto donations,” Elliptic said in an Oct. 25 statement. The amounts raised “remain tiny,” the firm added.

Elliptic’s statement was framed as a rebuttal to recent articles and letters written by The Wall Street Journal and United States lawmakers, which the firm says had misinterpreted data to make the case that cryptocurrency is widely used to fund Hamas’ "terrorist” activities.

As an example, Elliptic pointed to a “prominent” Hamas cryptocurrency fundraising campaign, operated by Gaza Now, a pro-Hamas news outlet, which has only raised $21,000 since the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7.

Of the $21,000 raised, $9,000 was frozen by stablecoin issuer Tether, while another $2,000 was frozen after it was sent to a cryptocurrency exchange — presumably to cash out, Elliptic noted.

Setting the record straight on crypto crowdfunding by Hamas https://t.co/1tZrE1C43V

Elliptic said it reached out to WSJ to correct a statement that initially claimed that over $130 million in cryptocurrency was raised by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad between Aug. 2021 and June 2023. WSJ later revised the statement to say “as much as $93 million” in an Oct. 10 update.

The WSJ article had been cited in a letter written by Elizabeth Warren and over 100 other U.S. lawmakers to the White House and U.S. Department of the Treasury on Oct. 17.

Warren and other lawmakers argued that cryptocurrency poses a “national security threat” to the U.S. and its allies and that Congress and the Biden