The U.S. Justice Department has disclosed the seizure of more than $560,000 in cryptocurrency intended for Hamas alongside a broader operation that gave the FBI control of online infrastructure allegedly used by the organization for fundraising and recruitment. The DOJ announced the operation on September 1, unsealing five court affidavits covering enforcement actions conducted between March 2025 and August 2026.
Three cryptocurrency seizure warrants, dated March 25, June 25 and October 10, 2025, accounted for approximately $560,000 in digital assets. Two additional warrants from July 29 and August 18, 2026 targeted domains and servers associated with AlQassam.ps, the main website operated by Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades, according to U.S. authorities. Hamas is designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the United States.
FBI Followed Crypto Across Wallets and Bridges
According to the DOJ, investigators used information from multiple human sources alongside blockchain tracing to identify cryptocurrency addresses controlled on behalf of the Al-Qassam Brigades. The network allegedly directed supporters through encrypted communications platforms to fundraising websites displaying rotating cryptocurrency addresses. The first major seizure was announced in March 2025, when authorities recovered approximately $200,000 in cryptocurrency connected to addresses the government said were used to collect Hamas donations. Investigators said the broader network had processed more than $1.5 million in cryptocurrency since October 2024. The investigation subsequently expanded.
Blockchain analysis linked donation wallets with operational wallets, cryptocurrency exchanges and accounts allegedly associated with financial intermediaries. By October 2025, investigators said Hamas-linked operators had begun using blockchain bridges to move assets between networks and increasingly relied on single-use donation addresses. Those techniques complicated tracing but did not eliminate the permanent transaction records available on public blockchains. Across the three 2025 warrants, authorities ultimately seized approximately $560,000.
Seized Websites Became an Investigative Tool
The later infrastructure seizures went beyond freezing cryptocurrency. Working with human sources, the FBI’s Albuquerque Field Office identified and took control of domains and servers associated with the Al-Qassam Brigades’ online operations. That allowed investigators not merely to shut down fundraising infrastructure but to intercept cryptocurrency donations that users subsequently attempted to send to Hamas. The FBI also obtained information concerning thousands of individuals who contacted the Hamas-linked platforms seeking to donate through cryptocurrency or traditional payment methods. The DOJ said that information will support future counterterrorism investigations. The operation illustrates an important characteristic of cryptocurrency-based illicit finance.
Although digital assets can move internationally without traditional banking intermediaries, transactions conducted on public blockchains can leave records that investigators can analyze long after funds have moved. Authorities can also target centralized exchanges, stablecoin issuers and other intermediaries when traced assets pass through their infrastructure. The latest action builds on previous U.S. enforcement targeting cryptocurrency allegedly connected to Hamas and affiliated organizations. In 2020, the Justice Department announced the seizure of millions of dollars and hundreds of cryptocurrency accounts associated with financing campaigns involving Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades, al-Qaeda and ISIS. U.S. scrutiny intensified following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, although cryptocurrency represents only one component of the organization’s broader financing network. The latest operation is therefore notable less for the absolute size of the $560,000 seizure than for how authorities combined financial tracing with control of the underlying fundraising infrastructure.
Rather than simply following completed transactions, investigators gained access to systems allegedly being used to solicit future donations. That transformed seized infrastructure into an ongoing intelligence source. The operation demonstrates the increasingly sophisticated approach authorities are taking toward crypto-based terrorist financing: trace the blockchain, seize identifiable assets, disrupt the communications channels generating the transactions and use control of those channels to identify the people attempting to fund them.
