Jihadist organizations have revitalized their donation campaigns in cryptocurrency platforms since the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7, according to a report by the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism this month.
The report found that extremist Islamist organizations such as al-Qaida and Islamic State are leveraging sympathy for the people in the Gaza Strip, mostly among Muslims, to collect funds for their organizations.
Anne Speckhard, the center's director, a retired adjunct associate professor of psychiatry at Georgetown University Medical School, and a co-author of the report, told The Media Line that jihadists have been crowdfunding through crypto donations for years. However, she said that the Israel-Hamas war has provided them with an opportunity to enhance their fundraising campaigns.
"These groups are using sympathy for Palestinian civilians under bombardments to raise money, claiming the funds will help victims," she said.
Speckhard said that the fundraising campaigns by the terrorist organizations were often very effective as donors confused them with legitimate fundraising campaigns.
Itai Reuveni, the director of communications of the watchdog organization NGO Monitor, told The Media Line that the intense media coverage of the Israel-Hamas war worldwide has provided a "golden opportunity" for terrorist organizations to collect donations.
The report said that the jihadist groups were using digital currencies such as Tether and Bitcoin alongside decentralized crypto exchange platforms.
"Entities linked to Islamic State and al-Qaida are building on past successes of exploiting sympathy for the Palestinians and now deeply exploiting the Israeli-Hamas conflict to boost their crowdfunding endeavors," the report said.
It said that some entities linked with al-Qaida were explicitly claiming that the collected donations were destined for civilians in Gaza. The report included screenshots showing that the groups were using instant messaging applications such as Telegram to request donations for people in need in Gaza.
Terrorists capitalize on crises
It noted that terrorist organizations often capitalize on political turmoil, natural disasters, and other crises to raise funds under the guise of donations for humanitarian aid.
As an example, the report cited a crowdfunding campaign for Gaza named "Strive with Your Money." The initiative is apparently overseen by Sheikh Zubair Al-Ghazi, an independent jihadist figure of Palestinian descent and a former Sharia member of Hayat Taharir Al-Sham in the HTS-controlled province of Idlib, Syria. Between the campaign's launch in mid-October up to mid-November, it collected about $500,000 in Tether donations and traditional currency, mostly from donors in Central Asia and Russia.
"The combination between crowdfunding and cryptocurrencies gives the jihadi groups a very useful tool to bypass the limitations that classic money transfers have," Reuveni said.
He said that cryptocurrencies not only allow terrorist groups to reach global audiences, they also provide those groups, as well as donors, with anonymity, as they are disconnected from the authorities and are difficult to trace.
Speckhard said that the cryptocurrency world is still so new that there are no proper regulations in place to control money transfers.
"While there are many banking regulations in place globally to stop terrorist financing, this movement in cryptocurrency is so new that US and Western authorities are struggling to keep up and stop it," she said.
Reuveni said that counter-terrorism entities such as intelligence agencies and private institutions are starting to tackle the realm of cryptocurrencies and crowdfunding, and that "many banks are very much committed to joining hands internationally to stop terrorist funding," but there is still much room for improvement.