Lawmakers urge White House to crackdown on Hamas use of crypto after attack

A bipartisan group of lawmakers is urging the Biden administration to swiftly crack down on the use of cryptocurrencies by Hamas and its affiliates following the Palestinian militant group’s deadly attack in Israel earlier this month.
In a letter sent on Tuesday to the U.S. Treasury Department and the White House led by Senators Elizabeth Warren, Roger Marshall and Representative Sean Casten, 105 lawmakers expressed “grave concern” that Hamas and an affiliated group called Palestinian Islamic Jihad were using digital assets to fund their operations and evade U.S. sanctions.
“Congress and this administration must take strong action to thoroughly address crypto illicit finance risks before it can be used to finance another tragedy,” the letter said.
Israeli police said in an Oct. 10 statement that it had frozen several crypto accounts that were used to solicit donations for Hamas. Reuters reported in May that Israel had seized around 190 crypto accounts at crypto exchange Binance since 2021, including dozens it said were owned by Palestinian firms connected to Hamas.
Binance said the exchange had been “working closely with international counter-terrorism authorities” on the seizures.