A U.S. Department of Justice asset-forfeiture filing has revealed that Hamas' military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, told potential donors to avoid Binance for certain transfers and instead use rival platforms including Bybit, OKX, Kast, Redotpay and Trust Wallet.
The guidance appeared in a February 2025 communication to an FBI source and was included in a filing dated September 9, 2026. Donors were instructed to transfer Tether's USDT stablecoin on the TRC-20 network to an external TRON wallet and to avoid including official names in transfer details. The letter did not completely rule out Binance, saying it could be used to buy crypto before moving funds through a different app.
Binance said the warning showed its controls were effective. Chief compliance officer Noah Perlman said: 'When terrorist groups tell people to avoid Binance, it shows our controls are working.' The exchange cited sanctions screening, transaction monitoring and collaboration with law enforcement.
OKX said the referenced wallet had no association with its platform and had already been flagged internally as linked to illicit activity. Kast said all customers undergo identity verification and screening, using tools from Elliptic, Sumsub and Sardine. Bybit declined to comment and Redotpay did not respond.
The disclosure is part of U.S. counterterrorist-financing efforts following the October 7, 2023 attacks. The Wall Street Journal previously reported that wallets linked to Hamas received around $41 million between 2020 and 2023, while the U.S. Treasury has investigated $165 million in crypto-linked transactions potentially tied to Hamas financing. Treasury's 2026 risk assessment said traditional financial services remain the main channel for terrorist money movement, though Hamas and ISIS continue using digital assets.
