U.S. Treasury sanctions Gaza-based crypto broker alleged to have facilitated $25 million in crypto transactions since 2015

The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned  Gaza-based crypto broker “Buy Cash Money and Money Transfer Company (Buy Cash)” and its operator, Ahmed M. M. Alaqad, for facilitating crypto transactions for Hamas, according to an Oct. 18 statement.

Buy Cash is simply a Gaza-based concern that provides wealth transportation and cryptocurrency speech services, including Bitcoin (BTC) and different assets, that has had ties to respective violent groups since 2017.

The company’s domain, registered successful July 2015, is linked to Alaqad, who serves arsenic its typical and the proprietor of the fiscal exchange.

In 2021, Israel’s National Bureau for Counter-Terrorist Financing (NBCTF) seized a crypto wallet associated with Buy Cash, which Hamas had employed for fundraising purposes. This enactment followed a 2019 Bitcoin transaction traced backmost to Al-Qa’ida-related groups and a Buy Cash wallet. Furthermore, successful 2017, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) utilized Buy Cash wallets to get circumstantial online resources.

Data from the blockchain analytical level Arkham Intelligence showed that the brokerage’s sanctioned BTC wallet “19D1iGzDr” held lone $16 worthy of assets arsenic of property time, and its past transaction was successful May 2022.

Meanwhile, an Elliptic study revealed the beingness of further addresses that the steadfast has utilized to facilitate implicit $25 cardinal successful cryptocurrency transactions since 2015.

It should beryllium noted that the regulator besides sanctioned 5 different individuals linked to helping money Hamas and Palestinian violent groups similar Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

Clampdown connected Hamas crypto activity 

The OFAC’s sanctions are portion of a broader planetary effort to restrict Hamas’s fiscal resources, with assorted regulatory bodies taking akin actions.

Earlier successful the week, stablecoin issuer Tether (USDT) said it froze 32 addresses associated with the conflicts successful Israel and Ukraine. The steadfast reported that astir $873,118.34 worthy of crypto assets were frozen from these addresses.

Additionally, the Israeli police, with enactment from Binance, person successfully frozen cryptocurrency accounts utilized by Hamas for fundraising.

The station U.S. Treasury sanctions Gaza-based crypto broker alleged to person facilitated $25 cardinal successful crypto transactions since 2015 appeared archetypal connected CryptoSlate.