Image Credit: Shutterstock
Key Takeaways
- A DOJ filing revealed a letter in which Al-Qassam Brigades told donors to avoid Binance and instead use platforms like Bybit, OKX, Kast and Redotpay.
- The letter recommended USDT over the TRC-20 network and instructed donors to obscure the wallet recipient’s identity.
- Binance and other named platforms said the guidance reflects effective compliance controls rather than any weakness, and the Treasury Department noted crypto remains a secondary method for terrorist financing.
Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, told potential donors it preferred they avoid Binance when transferring funds to the group’s wallets, according to documents included in a U.S. Department of Justice asset-forfeiture filing dated September 9. The letter recommended other platforms instead, including Bybit, OKX, Kast, and Redotpay.
What the Letter Instructed Donors to Do
The letter, reproduced in full within the DOJ filing, recommended Tether’s USDT stablecoin sent over the TRC-20 network, a token standard used on the Tron blockchain. It advised donors to avoid identifying the recipient by the group’s official name so that wallets would not be flagged, and to take steps to obscure who the funds were actually going to.
The letter said Binance could still be used to purchase currency, but recommended donors then move funds to a different application to complete the actual transfer to Al-Qassam Brigades’ wallet.
The guidance offers a rare look at how a U.S.-sanctioned militant organization evaluates crypto platforms based on the likelihood that transfers will be detected or blocked.
The inclusion of specific platforms in the letter does not by itself indicate weaknesses in those companies’ compliance controls. Major exchanges and widely used stablecoins serve many legitimate purposes and are named in the letter without evidence they were aware of or complicit in its instructions.
Platforms Respond to the Filing
Binance’s chief compliance officer, Noah Perlman, said the letter reflects the effectiveness of the exchange’s compliance systems rather than a weakness in them.
“When terrorist groups tell people to avoid Binance, it shows our controls are working. Binance is not a safe place for illicit actors. We invest heavily in sanctions screening, transaction monitoring and investigations, and we work closely with law enforcement to identify, disrupt and report terrorist financing and other financial crime.”
OKX said the wallet address referenced in the February 10, 2025, communication cited in the filing had no association with its platform and had already been identified by its internal controls as linked to illicit activity, meaning any customer attempt to send funds to that address would have been flagged and blocked.
Kast said in an emailed statement that it maintains a compliance function of more than 50 employees and screens all customers before granting platform access, using third-party providers including Elliptic, Sumsub, and Sardine for sanctions screening and transaction monitoring.
Bybit declined to comment, and Redotpay did not respond to a request for comment.
Broader Pattern of Terrorist Financing Through Crypto
The U.S. Treasury Department said in its 2026 terrorist-financing risk assessment that groups including Hamas and ISIS have continued using digital assets for donations and transfers, though it noted traditional financial products remain terrorist groups’ preferred method for moving money.
U.S. counterterrorism financing efforts targeting Hamas intensified following the group’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
A 2023 news report estimated that crypto wallets linked to Hamas received about $41 million between 2020 and 2023. A later report said the Treasury was examining roughly $165 million in crypto-linked transactions that may have helped finance the group before the October 2023 attack. The scale and effectiveness of Hamas’ broader crypto fundraising efforts remain unclear.
It is not confirmed whether Hamas’ guidance to avoid Binance reflects a direct response to changes in the exchange’s compliance practices, though the DOJ documents suggest Binance’s anti-money-laundering controls may have improved since earlier periods examined in federal investigations.
