Tags: Terrorism

Senator Elizabeth Warren isn’t leading the charge on this bill linking crypto transactions to terrorism — it comes from Senators Mitt Romney, Mark Warner, Mike Rounds and Jack Reed.

Reports on crypto funding terrorism and blockchain forensics were confusing, but everyone agreed on the need for collaboration and regulation.

Discussions around illicit activity, such as money laundering and terror financing, will take center stage at the upcoming House Financial Services Committee hearing.

The Campaign for Accountability wanted to let the anti-crypto senators know that the threat of terrorist financing with crypto was worse than they thought.

Elliptic, the firm which Wall Street Journal sourced the data from, said it was “pleased” to see the news outlet acknowledge its mistakes.

U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis and Representative French Hill urged the Justice Department to take “swift action” against Binance and Tether over facilitating funds for Hamas.

The government department warned virtual asset service providers and other financial institutions to “identify and report suspicious transactions” related to terrorist groups.

The organization is a collective of Israeli Web3 community members and international companies striving to alleviate suffering in the south of Israel.

The Blockchain Association and Crypto Council for Innovation said the terrorist group Hamas had reportedly curtailed using Bitcoin as authorities could more easily track funds.

The letter was signed by crypto opponents and many lawmakers who had been neutral on crypto until now.

According to the U.S. Treasury, terrorist groups including Hamas, ISIS, and an al-Qaeda affiliate used the Buy Cash Money and Money Transfer Company to transfer funds.

The stablecoin issuer freezes addresses containing $873,000 USDT linked to illicit activity in Israel and Ukraine.

The crypto Travel Rule, which came into effect on Sept. 1, aims to stop anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing activities carried out on-chain.

The Israeli ministries of defense and justice and a number of intelligence and enforcement agencies collaborated; Chainalysis also pitched in.

While fiat channels remain the dominant tool for criminal financing, Bitcoin appears to have fallen out of favor for criminals as far as cryptocurrencies go.

The United Nations body called on all member states to implement the Travel Rule “without delay” to close “loopholes” not currently protected by regulation.

Qatar has been told by the Financial Action Task Force to improve its “understanding of more complex forms” of financial crime.

Flag of Israel (Eduardo Castro/Pixabay)

Government should develop Know Your Customer procedures for social media and messaging services and take stronger measures to track cryptocurrency transactions.

While the Senator did not expand on other details of the upcoming bill, she suggested that DeFi should not be exempt from AML laws.

The UK financial watchdog has received 300 crypto firm registration applications but has approved only 41 applicants.