The United States Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, issued an alert for financial institutions as part of efforts to identify “suspicious activity” related to funding terrorist groups.
In an Oct. 20 notice, FinCEN said that the militant group Hamas — behind the Oct. 7 attack on Israel — employed “fundraising campaigns involving virtual currency and fictitious charities raising both fiat and virtual currency” to fund its activities. The government department warned virtual asset service providers and other institutions to “identify and report suspicious transactions” potentially connected to Hamas.