Hamas military wing told donors to avoid sending crypto directly from Binance, DOJ filing shows

A DoJ asset-forfeiture filing made public on Sept. 9 includes a letter from the Al-Qassam Brigades instructing prospective donors on how to send cryptocurrency donations. The message advised against using Binance for transfers and recommended using Trust Wallet, Bybit, OKX, Kast and Redotpay to move Tether (USDT) via the TRC-20 protocol to an external TRON wallet, adding that donors should avoid entering the group’s official name when sending funds.

The guidance in the filing also suggested that Binance could be used only to buy crypto, with transfers completed on other applications to avoid account blocking. The DoJ documents present this instruction as a disclosure of how the group sought to protect donors’ identities while facilitating cross-border transfers through stablecoins and online wallets.

Exchanges and crypto firms named in the letter have responded in varying ways. Binance’s chief compliance officer, Noah Perlman, said the group’s admonition to avoid Binance indicated that the exchange’s controls were effective, noting heavy investment in sanctions screening and cooperation with law enforcement. OKX told reporters the wallet address referenced in the Feb. 10, 2025 communication had no ties to OKX and had already been flagged by the exchange’s controls as linked to illicit activity. Kast provided details about its compliance staffing and third-party risk tools. Bybit declined to comment and Redotpay did not respond by press time.

U.S. authorities and analysts have raised concerns about the use of crypto by sanctioned groups and other illicit actors, particularly via stablecoins. The Treasury’s 2026 terrorist-financing risk assessment said groups including Hamas and ISIS have continued to use digital assets for donations and transfers, while noting that traditional financial networks remain preferred by terrorists. Previous reporting has tied cryptocurrency wallets connected to Hamas to tens of millions of dollars in receipts between 2020 and 2023, and Treasury has investigated larger sums in crypto-linked transactions that may have financed Hamas prior to the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks.

The appearance of the Al-Qassam letter in DoJ filings underscores ongoing tensions between the misuse of digital-asset tools by sanctioned actors and the efforts of exchanges and regulators to detect and block illicit flows. The inclusion of familiar platforms in the guidance does not, on its own, prove weak compliance at those firms; several named companies say they operate transaction monitoring, sanctions screening and customer due diligence programs and work with law enforcement when illicit activity is identified.