US Treasury: Crypto Isn’t a Popular Tool for Hamas and Jihadists

[TomPluz]

During last year’s terrorist attacks in Israel, crypto was quickly blamed for funding the violence. Critics, however, have challenged this claim, pointing to a lack of substantial evidence. A key testimony from Brian Nelson, the US Department of the Treasury’s Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, has further shifted the narrative.

Nelson clarified to lawmakers that the role of crypto in terrorism financing has been overstated. The Wall Street Journal initially linked substantial crypto payments to groups like Hamas. This was based on misinterpreted data from Elliptic, a blockchain analytics firm. However, subsequent data from Elliptic painted a different picture, leading to a revised report.

Taken from: https://beincrypto.com/us-treasury-clears-crypto-terrorism-financing/

I am sure that this good news for the whole cryptocurrency industry so that we can clear once and for all this wrong misconception that crypto is a big financing medium for terrorist everywhere. While we must not deny that crypto can be used, the majority of the money are still done the traditional way using fiat. so instead of focusing on crypto making so strict regulatory measures, why not lawmakers focus on fiat instead? Many of the assumed biases on cryptocurrency in general and Bitcoin in particular are now starting to crumble against the facts and realities presented to us including this terrorist tag and the famous "Bitcoin is anti-environment" narrative.

[Yamane_Keto]

The term terrorism is inseparable from politics. The same governments fund foreign entities in other countries, and these groups are classified as terrorists in other countries. The term needs to be re-adjusted because it varies depending on the country and place.
The use of Bitcoin in illegal activities compared to trading volumes and its use in speculation makes all subsequent stories unreal, as such arguments are used to convince public opinion of the necessity of regulating cryptocurrencies, while the government basically aims for everything to be under its control and that it can freeze any coins whenever it wants.

[ABCbits]

I'm just glad there's government worker who actually do some research and not just blaming cryptocurrency. Although it also shows various regulation (which usually demand personal information) for fiat isn't enough to keep criminal stay away.

[Baofeng]

Yeah, this is no longer 2016-2018 wherein crypto especially Bitcoin is being blame because according to the authorities, it is being used underground by drug cartels, terrorists and others for their own used.

But we all know that for some, it's complicated and I don't think that terrorists love to go with that kind of method. For me they are still using the old and traditional fiat transfer thru money laundering to hide their tracks and not crypto per se. Maybe they have tried it before, but as I have said, they could fine it difficult as well and so they dump that idea many years ago.

[Captain Corporate]

I mean, even if we assume that lets say it is. The part I do not understand is that, how can they get cash for it? Its digital and they can use it digitally right? Like lets assume for a second that Hamas wants their crypto cashed out, could they? They can't. But also assume they are wired fiat to their bank account or something, can they cash it? They can't. So all in all, Hamas type of organizations use money in digital form, they have no use for cash, I mean they could get cash some other way, but not millions of dollars worth, not "lets buy bunch of rockets and weapons" worth of money. THAT has to be digital. In this case, what did terrorists used before crypto even existed? It doesn't matter if they start using crypto, they are already doing it, digitally, been doing that way before bitcoin was even created.

[trendcoin]

When I saw the US officials talking about terrorists, I thought for a moment that they were going to admit the crimes they have committed all over the world before, but they talked about other things. :)

They are forcing all centralized cryptocurrency exchanges to work with them. They are about to put CZ in jail for money laundering. There is no place in the world they won't impose sanctions. They are almost more powerful than God. Are they still telling us fairy tales? If Hamas or any other group is using cryptocurrencies for this purpose, they can expose it. Instead of gossiping, they should reveal it with concrete data.

[ABCbits]

I mean, even if we assume that lets say it is. The part I do not understand is that, how can they get cash for it? Its digital and they can use it digitally right? Like lets assume for a second that Hamas wants their crypto cashed out, could they? They can't. But also assume they are wired fiat to their bank account or something, can they cash it? They can't. So all in all, Hamas type of organizations use money in digital form, they have no use for cash, I mean they could get cash some other way, but not millions of dollars worth, not "lets buy bunch of rockets and weapons" worth of money. THAT has to be digital. In this case, what did terrorists used before crypto even existed? It doesn't matter if they start using crypto, they are already doing it, digitally, been doing that way before bitcoin was even created.

Some country support Hamas, so they could just open bank account on bank located there. And IMO it wouldn't be surprising if someone who perform transaction with Hamas accept cryptocurrency.

[Lucius]

Whenever there is a conflict of war and whenever there is a story about terrorists, vigilant critics bring up the story of how Bitcoin is used to finance those very bad people - even though we know there are thousands of cryptocurrencies, and some of them are far more private (harder to track) compared to Bitcoin.

We all know that it is much easier to finance such things through classic methods, whether it is bags full of cash or bank accounts in banks that do not ask whose money it is and what it is for. At the end of the day, the one who uses cryptocurrencies must be computer literate and know what he is doing, and many of these "terrorists" do not seem to me to be too intelligent for such things.

Fortunately, people appear from time to time who make their statements based on research, not on misconceptions.

[Z-tight]

True bitcoiners have always been aware of this fact, and that is that BTC has a public and transparent blockchain and so it cannot be a suitable tool for terrorists and people who finance terrorism, it was just another form of attack against BTC by the government.

It is good this is coming from the same government institutions, and they can see that we are right when we say blockchain analysis companies mostly work with 'guesswork' and they can get things completely wrong.