CoinDesk Publishes Long Debunked Hamas Financing Allegations

Yesterday, the Treasury announced that it had seized $200,000 in cryptocurrency "intended to Support the Terrorist Activities of Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya (Hamas)."

The seized funds were traced from fundraising addresses allegedly controlled by Hamas that were used to launder more than $1.5 million in virtual currency since October 2024, the Justice Department claims without further comment.

In its coverage of the announcement, CoinDesk writes:

"According to the U.S. Treasury, Hamas has been using cryptocurrency to move some of its money since at least 2020, in order to mitigate the risks of physically transporting cash and to evade financial monitoring."

CoinDesk, a formerly award-winning publication recently purchased by the digital assets investment firm Bullish Global backed by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, presents the Treasury's claim without notice that it is an allegation that has been widely debunked through expert reports and Congressional inquiry.

Specifically, the statement is debunked by the very TRM Labs report the CoinDesk authors cite, which clarifies that "al-Quasa Brigades announced that it would stop receiving donations in Bitcoin" in April 2023, and that other cryptocurrency fundraising campaigns had "failed to raise significant funds."

Additionally, Treasury Undersecretary Brian Nelson told the House Financial Services Committee in 2024 that "Hamas’s financing using cryptocurrency is not as widespread as previously implied by media reporting. Furthermore, the Undersecretary confirmed that [...] cryptocurrencies are not a popular tool used by Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in their terror financing efforts."

Interestingly, CoinDesk itself had previously reported on Treasury's debunking of the allegation that Hamas extensively relied on cryptocurrency financing.

Nikhilesh De, editor of yesterday's article, reported for CoinDesk that "the Treasury's top official on terrorism, Brian Nelson, said Hamas and other groups still prefer traditional financing, and crypto isn't figuring in their funding in a big way."

In another article, De reports that Treasury's attribution of large sums of cryptocurrency to possible Hamas financing was likely due to faulty analysis, citing former Deputy Treasury Secretary Adeyemo, who stated that "only a portion of the reported activity may have constituted such activity," and that "we continue to assess that Hamas and other terrorists have a preference for the use of traditional financial products and services."

Cheyenne Ligon, the same author who penned yesterday's seizure announcement, additionally reported last year on findings by the blockchain surveillance firm Elliptic, which found that the organization Gaza Now raised "a mere $21,000 in crypto for Hamas since the October 7th attacks."

CoinDesk parent firm Bullish is a venture of Block.One, co-founded by Epstein associate and Tether co-founder Brock Pierce, who maintains a close relationship with the Israeli Government as well as with the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, which advocates for the annexation of occupied Palestinian territories and the jewish settlement of "Judea and Samaria".

Under new leadership, CoinDesk has previously faced criticisms for censoring stories on TRON founder Justin Sun.

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