The Justice Department has seized more than $560,000 in cryptocurrency that federal officials say was intended for Hamas, capping an operation that also handed investigators the identities of thousands of people who tried to send money to the militant group. Officials announced the disruption Tuesday, describing it as part of a broader campaign to choke off the terrorist organization's digital finances.
According to Boston 25 News, the Justice Department took control of website domains and communication platforms that Hamas had used for fundraising and recruitment, alongside the cryptocurrency seizure. The outlet, citing Justice Department officials, reported that Hamas had solicited donations through its Telegram channel and that hamas websites offered instructions for making anonymous donations. Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said the operation will continue until Hamas' “ability to wage war is defeated,” and added that the group's networks are not secure and its cryptocurrency is vulnerable.
Per the same report, FBI officials identified a financing network soliciting virtual-currency donations to the Qassam Brigades, which is Hamas' military wing, last year. A confidential source in the United States alerted law enforcement to a Telegram post requesting contributions to an email address associated with Hamas, and Hamas officials reportedly claimed the virtual currency would be untraceable. The station's report notes that Hamas began testing virtual-currency fundraising through the Qassam Brigades around 2019, using direct online fundraising as one channel among several.
An 18-Month Paper Trail Behind the Seizure
The roughly $560,000 total was not seized in a single sweep. Court records show federal investigators secured three separate court-authorized warrants — on March 25, 2025, June 25, 2025, and October 10, 2025 — following multi-stage blockchain tracing, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. That incremental timeline suggests federal agents spent the better part of a year and a half quietly intercepting funds before making Tuesday's announcement public.
Blockchain analytics reviewed by KuCoin found that Hamas' fundraising wallets relied heavily on Tether (USDT) stablecoins and cycled more than $1.5 million in digital assets since late 2024 through rapid account rotation, a tactic meant to obscure the money trail from public blockchain surveillance. Separately, the Lionsgate Network reports that although the Qassam Brigades publicly claimed in April 2023 that it would halt Bitcoin donations over donor safety concerns, federal investigations show the group continued soliciting crypto donations covertly, shifting toward wallet rotation and encrypted channels like Telegram.
FBI's Albuquerque Office Pulled the Website Offline
Assistant Attorney General John A. Eisenberg said the asset seizures directly deprive Hamas of resources used to recruit individuals online and finance attacks like the October 7, 2023 strike on Israel, according to the Justice Department. FBI Assistant Director in Charge Brett Leatherman, who leads the bureau's cyber division, said the FBI will continue using its authorities to intercept illicit funds and prevent terrorist organizations from exploiting digital networks to finance operations, per Boston 25 News.
The Justice Department statement adds that the FBI's Albuquerque Field Office worked with human sources to identify and dismantle the server infrastructure and web domains behind AlQassam.ps, the Qassam Brigades' primary website. That takedown did more than cut off a propaganda outlet — federal investigators also gathered online communication records and contact details for thousands of prospective donors who had attempted to send cryptocurrency to Hamas, information the FBI plans to use in ongoing counter-terrorism operations, the Justice Department says.
Part of a Broader, Years-Long Crackdown
Tuesday's announcement extends a pattern of federal action against Hamas' crypto fundraising that stretches back years. In July 2025, the Justice Department filed a civil forfeiture action seeking $2 million in digital currency from the Gaza-based Buy Cash Money and Money Transfer Company, an entity sanctioned for facilitating more than $4 million in Hamas operations, according to KuCoin — a case Hoodline covered at the time. Hoodline also reported in March 2025 on an earlier tranche of forfeiture warrants that recovered roughly $201,400 in Hamas-linked crypto.
The Treasury Department, meanwhile, sanctioned the Gaza Now media channel and related entities in March 2024 for soliciting cryptocurrency donations to support Hamas following the October 7 attacks, illustrating coordination between Treasury sanctions and Justice Department forfeitures. Federal authorities have pursued this style of enforcement before: in August 2020, the Justice Department carried out a cryptocurrency seizure targeting the online fundraising networks of the Qassam Brigades, al-Qaeda, and ISIS, according to reporting cited in the dossier's historical background.
Legal Exposure for Donors Identified in the Sweep
The forfeiture itself proceeds under 18 U.S.C. § 981(a)(1)(G) and 18 U.S.C. § 2339B, statutes that allow the government to confiscate assets derived from or intended to facilitate designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations without a prior criminal trial of foreign operatives, according to White & Case LLP. But the donor data captured through the AlQassam.ps server seizure raises separate legal stakes: individuals in the United States who attempted to send money to Hamas could face criminal prosecution under material support statutes, which carry penalties of up to 20 years in federal prison.
That distinction has already played out in related cases. Hoodline reported in June that a San Diego charity boss was nabbed in a Hamas cash scheme involving Gaza Now, and in August, federal prosecutors in New York charged Mohammad Hasna with funneling millions in alleged aid to Hamas leadership. A separate case out of Irondequoit accused an activist of running a $30,000 crypto pipeline to Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Whether any of the thousands of donor contacts gathered in this latest sweep will lead to new charges remains unclear.
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