David Carlisle, vice president at Elliptic, said: “Hamas has been among the most prolific, raising millions of dollars in crypto alongside other Palestinian militant groups.”
In April Hamas announced it was suspending cryptocurrency donations, citing problems with “the safety of donors”.
A number of private companies and, increasingly, law enforcement agencies have become adept at tracing cryptocurrency payments through their “blockchains”, the public digital ledgers that record each transaction for tokens such as Bitcoin.
Israeli police said on Tuesday that they had frozen cryptocurrency accounts identified as belonging to Hamas.
A spokesman said: “The Israel Police, Ministry of Defense, and other partners will continue the fight against terrorist financing and targeting the strategic financial assets of terrorist organizations.”
Israeli police said they had also worked with their British counterparts to freeze a British bank account at Barclays, which they said was used by Hamas to solicit donations.
Barclays was asked for comment.
Hamas is a sanctioned terrorist organisation in the UK, US and EU, among other countries. It is illegal to provide the group with funding.
