TRM Labs, a blockchain analytics firm, recently released a report stating that terrorist groups worldwide associated with terrorist group ISIS routinely use crypto for fundraising, which in some cases helped them secure supporters. The report highlighted multiple pro-ISIS groups in Tajikistan that raised around $2 million in Tron-based USDT during 2022. The groups used a centralized exchange to cash out the funds, which allowed TRM to trace the money and notify the exchange. As a result, a senior ISIS fundraiser was arrested in Turkey.
In addition, another pro-ISIS group raised over $517,000 using an account on an Indonesia-based exchange. The donations to that campaign often came in quite large amounts, around $10,000 each. Meanwhile, ISIS affiliates in Pakistan raised a more modest amount of $40,000 over the past 12 months. Al-Azaim Foundation for Media Production, a pro-ISIS media organization in Afghanistan, also used crypto for fundraising purposes, receiving $10,000.
Crypto has been utilized by terrorists and insurgent groups around the world over the past few years. In 2021, global crypto exchange Binance reportedly froze the accounts controlled by the militant wing of Hamas, which accumulated around $80,000 in a single month. However, for the safety of its donors, Hamas abandoned bitcoin as a fundraising method in 2023.