US, UK and Australia step up sanctions on Hamas-linked crypto facilitators

The United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced new sanctions against “networks and facilitators” of crypto transactions linked to the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

In a Jan. 22 announcement, OFAC said it was imposing a fifth round of sanctions against Hamas following the group’s Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. The Treasury said it’s targeting financial facilitators that “played key roles” in moving crypto funds to Hamas, a concurrent action with authorities in the United Kingdom and Australia.

“Hamas has sought to leverage a variety of financial transfer mechanisms, including the exploitation of cryptocurrency, to channel funds to support the group’s terrorist activities,” said Brian Nelson, under secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.

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Among the entities named in OFAC’s list of Specially Designated Nationals included members of the Shamlakh family, behind a Gaza-based moneychanger funneling tens of millions of dollars from Iran to Hamas, and the Herzallah Exchange, which has allegedly worked with Hamas to facilitate transactions in crypto. No specific crypto addresses were listed in the sanctions.

The sanctions build on previously announced OFAC actions against Hamas-tied crypto operators in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks. Some media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, have since reported on the group’s alleged ties to crypto funding networks, but some experts have suggested their claims may have been exaggerated. The WSJ later published a correction.

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