OFAC sanctions Gaza-based crypto exchange allegedly linked to Hamas

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned Buy Cash Money and Money Transfer Company, a Gaza-based cryptocurrency exchange with alleged ties to Palestinian militant group Hamas.

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Fast Facts

• On Wednesday, OFAC announced that it imposed sanctions on 10 key entities believed to be linked to Hamas, including its members, operatives and financial facilitators. 

• The Treasury Department reported that in 2021, Israel’s National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing seized crypto wallets connected to a Hamas fundraising campaign. According to New York-based blockchain intelligence firm Chainalysis, one of these addresses belonged to Buy Cash. 

• “Buy Cash, while implicated in Hamas crypto activity, also facilitated transfers for other terrorist groups — notably, a 2019 Bitcoin transfer from an al-Qa’ida affiliate and a 2017 procurement of online infrastructure on behalf of ISIS,” said Chainalysis in a Wednesday report.
• In addition to the Gaza-based crypto business, OFAC said it imposed sanctions on individuals involved in a secret Hamas investment portfolio and an operative with deep connections to the Iranian regime.

• Israel declared war on Hamas on Oct. 7 after the militant group carried out an attack in Israel, prompting a retaliation airstrike in Gaza.

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