Terrorist financing accounts for just 0.05% of all illegal crypto transactions: Report

“While the industry has come a long way since Satoshidis, Mt Gox and the Silk Road, illegal activity has reduced but not completely stopped. However, in 2020 less than 1% of all activity in the crypto space Representing less, illicit activity is no more of a concern for the crypto-economy than for the traditional financial system,” Coinbase wrote in a blog on Medium, publishing the findings of an analysis conducted by its Special Investigation Team.

The analysis focused on the fundraising efforts of the largest terrorist financing-related organizations over the past few years.

“Assessing the fundraising of these organizations over time, we find that Hamas has raised the most funds to date. This is likely because Hamas is actively involved in the form of bitcoin on its website and related Telegram channels. solicits donations,” the crypto exchange said.

Hamas first began soliciting donations in bitcoin in January 2018 with a unique donation address.

The research also showed that there has been some interest in altcoin-based fundraising. Altcoins is a cumulative term to define the cryptocurrency that comes after bitcoin.

“From August 2020 to August 2021, terrorist organizations started receiving ETH (Ether), ERC20 tokens and XRP (Ripple) donations. This fundraising can be attributed entirely to the Saudi-led jihadist activist movement, which began soliciting donations in 2020 in the form of BTC, ETH, XRP and various ERC20 tokens,” Coinbase said.

According to the exchange, after identifying a terror funding operation, it blocks any crypto addresses associated with these organizations, traces the efforts of a wider terror organization campaign and coordinates with law enforcement agencies.

With continued growth in institutional and consumer interest in crypto, as well as decentralized finance (DeFi, 2020 and 2021), cryptocurrencies have seen the mainstream adoption that the space has anticipated over the years.