Is crypto to blame for Hamas?

In the days following the unspeakable massacre of Israeli citizens by Hamas terrorists, crypto has become an unwilling part of the story. On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal published a widely circulated report that called out cryptocurrency as integral to the operation’s funding:

“During the year leading up to the attacks, three militant groups—Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and their Lebanese ally Hezbollah—received large amounts of funds through crypto, according to a review of Israeli government seizure orders and blockchain analytics reports,” reported the Journal, which claims Hamas crypto wallets have received $41 million since mid-2021.

The optics of this are obviously terrible, and anti-crypto politicians like Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) have already seized on the Journal story to denounce crypto as a tool for terrorists. Crypto advocates, meanwhile, have denounced such narratives as distorted and unfair.

The heated rhetoric is understandable at a time when Israelis are still burying the victims of the massacre while trying to make sense of how Hamas could have pulled this off. Nonetheless, the crypto defenders are correct—for the most part. Industry champions are often reluctant to mention that blockchain does offer novel ways to channel money to terror groups, and are prone to overlook criminal activity by invoking a lazy “money wants to be free” ethos. But it’s still a mistake to think crypto had a significant connection to the Hamas atrocities.

For starters, $41 million is a relative pittance in relation to the total amount of external funds that flow into Hamas’s coffers from the likes of Iran and other sponsors of terror. It’s also notable that Hamas announced earlier this year that it would stop via fundraising Bitcoin because its opponents have had too much success tracing the funds to its members. In other words, crypto is a poor tool for terrorist financing because it is too easy to track. There’s also the reality that, if crypto did not exist, most or all of the $41 million would have gotten funneled to Hamas one way or another—through gold bars, shady bank accounts, or pallets of $100 bills.

Finally, if you still think of crypto as a tool for terrorists, consider the following: I was in the midst of reporting on a crypto startup in Tel Aviv that was on the cusp of announcing a funding round worth tens of millions. The announcement has been delayed because the founders, both veterans, have put it off as they turn to defending their country. They are hardly the only ones in this position as numerous other Israeli crypto startups are navigating how to balance grieving, employees being drafted, and running their business.

Bottom line: Don’t blame crypto for what happened in Israel. Blame Hamas.

(An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the Journal neglected to mention Hamas stopped fundraising via Bitcoin. This has been corrected).

Jeff John Roberts
[email protected]
@jeffjohnroberts

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