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Fact Sheet

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FOR MORE INFORMATION

September 28, 2021 Connor Silva
Public Relations Director
(978) 500-4286
silk4747@gmail.com

The Use of Cryptocurrencies in Terrorist Financing

WHAT

● Coinbase put together a study to examine terrorist financing through the use of
cryptocurrencies.
● Coinbase is working to internally regulate the crypto space by helping put a stop to
terrorist funding. Their analytics team detects terrorist organizations and their associates
through the tracking of crypto transactions. They then block any and all crypto addresses
associated with these organizations to stop their funding.
● Most of the transactions to terrorist organizations are given as Bitcoin, however in recent
years Ethereum and XRP have both been used to transfer money.
● It was found that transactions that were associated with terrorist financing in 2020
accounted for less than 0.05% of all illicit volume.
WHO

● The main groups who participate in terrorist financing are Hamas, Saudi-led jhadi activist
movement, al-Qaeda related exchanges, al-Qaeda and ISIS.
● Coinbase Special Investigations Team conducted an analysis of global crypto transactions
by analyzing Coinbase Analytics across various blockchains.
● The terror organization Hamas accounts for the most cryptocurrency fundraising to date.
This is due to their active asking of donations in Bitcoin on their website.
 ● Coinbase shares their data with the FinCEN and FBI to aid them in terroism defense
efforts.
WHERE

● This is done on various terrorist organization’s websites and Telegram channels.

● The Cryptocurrency is mainly sent to accounts in the Middle East.
WHEN

● Coinbase has data on cryptocurrency terrorist funding that goes as far back as January of
2018.
● These fundraising efforts for these groups usually last about two or three months before
authorities in their respected countries take their fundraising pages down. These websites
then reappear weeks or months later.

MISSION STATEMENT
“Our Mission is to increase economic freedom in the world. Everyone deserves access to

financial services that can help empower them to create a better life for themselves and their

families. If the world economy ran on a common set of standards that could not be manipulated

by any company or country, the world would be a more fair and free place, and human progress

would accelerate.”
 Bibliography

Wilder, H. (2021, September 21). An overview of the use of cryptocurrencies in terrorist

financing. Coinbase.com. Retrieved September 27, 2021, from

https://blog.coinbase.com/an-overview-of-the-use-of-cryptocurrencies-in-terrorist-

financing-235df6049bc7.