1 year ago
Despite a raging online statement discrediting the standard of crypto enactment for violent groups, the communicative continues to resonate successful important places. Most precocious connected Thursday, the ranking Democrat astatine a hearing successful the U.S. House of Representatives quoted a fig of $130 cardinal successful integer assets flowing to terrorists.
Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) lamented those immense crypto donations to groups specified arsenic Hamas and praised the manufacture crackdown from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) arsenic 1 of the things the bureau is "doing right."
"Some $130 cardinal of cryptocurrency has gone to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad,"
Sherman said astatine an SEC oversight proceeding of 1 of the subcommittees of the House Financial Services Committee. He said the assets are "designed to beryllium cleanable means for hidden money, hence the word cryptocurrency, getting to the worst actors successful the world."
Massive manufacture pushback connected those archetypal reports – including an Oct. 10 relationship from the Wall Street Journal – led to immoderate backtracking. The Wall Street Journal issued a partial correction to clarify what it knew astir the travel of virtual currency to terrorists, which had primitively cited much than $90 cardinal tied to Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). And the crypto analytics institution the paper had relied connected for data, Elliptic, enactment retired a elaborate blog station explaining however its transaction information had been misconstrued and that an existent magnitude of crypto donated to Hamas since Oct. 7 by the astir salient backing run – Gaza Now – was person to $21,000.
A spokesperson for Sherman didn't instantly respond to questions from CoinDesk connected his usage of the statistics, which are now reflected successful the legislature record.
Sherman had been among much than a 100 lawmakers signing an Oct. 17 letter that utilized the WSJ reporting arsenic the impetus for a request that the medication bash much to combat illicit usage of integer assets, particularly successful airy of Hamas' onslaught connected Israel. That letter cited much than $130 cardinal successful cryptocurrencies being raised by Hamas and PIJ.
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