As part of an effort by Israel to prevent Hamas, a terrorist organization that garnered more than $40 million through similar sites between 2021 and 2023, from receiving funds, more than 100 bitcoin accounts have been frozen.
According to reports quoted by The Financial Times on Tuesday, October 17, Israel’s law enforcement agencies have mandated the freezing of accounts on Binance since October 7 and a closure inspection of about 200.
Binance claimed it complied with some account termination requests and that it abides under globally recognized sanctions rules, but it did not elaborate.
It follows the disclosure that Hamas acquired a sizable amount of funding through the cryptocurrency website, which was made public yesterday by Israeli research firms.
A cryptocurrency company called Tether yesterday frozen 32 digital wallets that together held $800,000 as part of an effort.
Links to Hamas cryptocurrency donation sites have reportedly appeared often since the attack on Israel on October 7 according to Israeli intelligence forces.
According to a research by BitOK, a Tel Aviv-based company, between August 2021 and June 2023, Hamas and its military branch collected over $41 million in cryptocurrencies.
A different study by Elliptic, a different cryptocurrency research company, discovered that wallets connected to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another recognized terrorist organization, collected over $91 million during the same time period, according to the Wall Street Journal.