2026

Cryptocurrency Remains a Key Tool for Terror Financing, Experts Say 

Snir Levy, CEO of Nominis: “We have uncovered a lot of wallets that are linked to illicit activities and other terror financing entities in Gaza, but also in other places in the world” 

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) recently revealed that they had uncovered details of an Iranian-directed Hamas funding network that, through Turkey, was able to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars to the terror group. 

Iran allegedly provided the funds and directed the network through operatives and intermediaries connected to Hamas-linked financiers in Turkey, who would then coordinate and manage the money. The funds were allegedly laundered through a number of channels, including money exchanges, front companies, charities, commercial businesses, and cryptocurrency networks. 

These kinds of illegal money transfer chains help terrorist organizations survive and operate. According to Israeli authorities, they were among the mechanisms that enabled Hamas to carry out the deadly October 7, 2023, attack. 

Israeli lawyer Dr. Gideon Fisher, of the Law Office of Dr. Gideon Fisher & Co., told The Media Line that his firm has been targeting the financial infrastructure that allows terrorism to function, especially networks using cryptocurrency. Since the massacre, his firm has represented a number of victims of the attack. He is currently working with thousands, all of whom are recognized as victims of terror by Israel’s National Insurance Institute.  

He explained that litigation can be pursued not only against the terrorist group that carried out an attack, but also against parties that allegedly financed those activities or enabled them. The goal, he said, is not only to support victims, although that remains the primary focus, but also to make it harder to finance terrorism in the future. 

“On top of the moral obligations, it is a strategic move to cut off terrorism at its financial groups,” Fisher told The Media Line. 

Cryptocurrency is widely viewed as one of the primary financial channels used by terrorist organizations. 

Originally, cryptocurrency gained notoriety through platforms like Silk Road, where it was used for illegal activities, including terrorism and other criminal operations. Although the industry has become far more regulated in recent years, cryptocurrency’s anonymous nature has made it easier for terrorist entities to obscure the flow of funds and mask complex transaction networks. Experts say these systems have also been exploited by state-linked actors seeking to bypass international sanctions, similar to the network recently exposed by the IDF. 

Fisher’s team has filed a lawsuit against the Palestine Liberation Organization, alleging that it illegally transferred money to terrorists, including payments to the families of Palestinians imprisoned in Israel for attacks that injured or killed Israelis. He argued that the money encouraged and enabled terrorist organizations to strengthen their operations ahead of October 7. 

“In our lawsuit against Binance, we describe that they intentionally and/or negligently provided extensive cryptocurrency services to Hamas, and they were asked to do so because Hamas realized that they cannot use the banking system,” Fisher said. “No banks would provide Hamas with any services, so Hamas was forced to use an alternative method, and they chose crypto. They had thousands of transactions that helped facilitate the October 7 attack.” 

Binance is one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges. The lawsuit alleges that the company violated international sanctions and US laws prohibiting financial support for terrorism. 

Dr. Amir Bushansky, blockchain and crypto advisor to the law office of Dr. Gideon Fisher, echoed Fisher’s concerns, but said the cryptocurrency industry has changed significantly in recent years, partly because of legal cases and growing regulation. He said that, unlike in the past, it is now much harder to conceal one’s identity on crypto networks, especially in the United States. 

“More and more misuse in criminal activities is being traced down in the crypto market,” Bushansky explained. “Naturally, there were rumors, even lately, that part of the reduction in the Bitcoin value was due to some Iranian leaders pulling their funds.” 

While allegations regarding past activity remain at the center of lawsuits like Fisher’s, Bushansky said the regulatory environment surrounding cryptocurrency has become far stricter in recent years. He noted that anti-money laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements now make it much more difficult to engage in criminal activity or finance terrorism on major crypto platforms. 

Cryptocurrency users operate through wallet numbers and public addresses rather than verified names and identities. As such, any individual can open a digital account and transfer funds without being identified or traced. 

“You were not exposed by your name and address identity, and therefore you could pass on funds around the world,” Bushansky explained. He contrasted that system with traditional banking, where AML and KYC regulations already required institutions to track funds, verify their source, and understand the purpose of transactions, making transfers far more traceable for both senders and receivers. 

But Bushansky said new international regulations are increasingly binding cryptocurrency platforms to the same standards as banks, and that by 2027, AML and KYC requirements are expected to apply broadly across the crypto industry. 

“From 2027, the crypto stock exchange will be bound to supply details about the users to tax authorities around the world,” Bushansky said. “Many countries have already signed on to the plan.” 

Snir Levi is the founder and CEO of Nominis, an Israeli blockchain intelligence company that traces and maps illegal cryptocurrency wallets. The company works with regulators and organizations seeking to combat crypto-enabled illicit activities and terror financing. 

“We provide services today for clients all over the world, including law enforcement agencies, payment providers dealing with cryptocurrencies.  With our platform, they’re able to conduct risk screening for wallets and understand where funds came from – the ‘source of funds’ and the destination of funds, to confirm that the wallet they are about to interact with has not been linked or involved in money laundering or terror financing,” Levi told The Media Line. 

Nominis, for example, develops forensic tools that help investigators identify connections between digital wallets. The company also has a designated team focused on monitoring high-risk jurisdictions and tracking activity related to terror financing, illegal weapons, drug trafficking, human trafficking, and other criminal operations. 

Currently, the company is particularly focused on detecting wallets connected to terror financing, including networks similar to the one recently identified by the IDF. 

“We have uncovered a lot of wallets that are linked to illicit activities and other terror financing entities in Gaza, but also in other places in the world. And based on these, we’re able to detect other illicit entities and networks, such as shell companies,” he said. Shell companies are businesses used to conceal the true source or destination of funds. 

Nominis also played a role in uncovering a scheme reported earlier this year by The Washington Post, in which Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) allegedly exploited the global cryptocurrency ecosystem to move nearly $150 million through two London-registered exchanges, ZedCex and ZedXion, between 2023 and 2025. 

According to Levi, Nominis helped corroborate and verify that wallets linked to the IRGC routed massive volumes of the USDT stablecoin through the TRON blockchain into accounts on exchanges acting as crypto hubs. The funds were allegedly funneled through platforms that obscured the origin and destination of transactions, making it harder for authorities to trace potential terror financing activity. 

Levi also shared links to crypto brokers operating in Gaza, including Quick4Pay, which on its website advertises a large client base in “occupied Palestine” and other Arab states. 

“Readers need to understand how deep this problem is,” Levi said. He warned that, despite expected regulatory changes, enforcement may remain limited largely to the United States and certain Western countries. He argued that if other jurisdictions continue allowing limited transparency and oversight, cryptocurrency could remain a significant channel for terror financing and potentially facilitate future attacks. 

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By David Lawder

PARIS, May 19 (Reuters) – The Trump administration is “not in a rush” to extend a tariff and critical minerals trade truce with China that ends in November, as there is time to renew it in meetings later this year, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Tuesday.

In his first interview since attending last week’s high-stakes summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, Bessent said that he believes China will accept the restoration of prior U.S. tariff rates through new Section 301 duties, as long as they don’t go higher.

China in recent months had “gotten a deal” on lower tariffs as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision striking down President Donald Trump’s global emergency duties, he said on the sidelines of a G7 finance leaders meeting in Paris.

“I think we’re not in a rush to extend it,” Bessent said of the November 2025 tariff truce. “Things are stable.”

He added that China has “been satisfactory, but not excellent in terms of their fulfillment on their side on critical minerals. So we’re seeing them again.”

Xi is expected to travel to Washington to meet with Trump at the White House in September. Prior to that summit, Bessent said that he will meet with his counterpart, Vice Premier He Lifeng, to work out more details on trade matters.

Trump and Xi also may meet at an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in November in China and a Group of 20 leaders summit in December in Florida.

The U.S.-China truce negotiated over several months last year averted a total collapse of trade between the world’s two largest economies after Trump’s new tariffs on Chinese goods prompted retaliation and escalation that took tariffs to triple digits.

The deal brought down extra tariffs on Chinese goods to about 20%, in addition to about 25% on many Chinese industrial products imposed during Trump’s first term. The extra tariffs are currently at 10% as a result of a temporary tariff that expires in July.

Bessent said that deals for China to order 200 Boeing jetliners and make annual purchases of $17 billion in American farm goods resulting from the Trump-Xi summit are considered separate from the November trade truce.

TARIFF CUTS ON CONSUMER GOODS

He said that he views the most important achievements as the establishment of bilateral managed trade, investment and artificial intelligence protocols with Beijing, which will be discussed in subsequent negotiations.

In the “Board of Trade,” the two sides will initially determine about $30 billion of non-strategic goods on which they can lower or eliminate tariffs.

“We’ll pick a number. My sense is the first number is there’s going to be 30 by 30 (billion dollars), and then both sides will try to fill up the capacity there,” he said, adding that the U.S. agricultural sales will not be included in these totals.

He said that China could reduce tariffs on U.S. energy products, while the U.S. would likely cut tariffs on Chinese consumer goods that will not be produced in the U.S. again, such as fireworks or Halloween costumes.

The U.S. maintains tariffs of 7.5% on a raft of Chinese consumer products imposed in 2019 at the height of Trump’s first-term trade war with China, including flat-panel television sets, flash memory devices, smart speakers and bed linens.

The Board of Investment will deal with two-way investment issues, and for inward investment from China, it will focus on identifying deals that would not run afoul of national security and head off investments that the U.S. is not ready to consider.

“I would think this board of investment would either A, keep things from getting to CFIUS, or B, just be like, ‘We’re not really up for that,’” Bessent said.

In the run-up to the Beijing summit, lawmakers, auto and steel groups had urged Trump against opening the door to Chinese investments in U.S. auto plants, for fear that China’s state-supported firms would hollow out a core domestic industry.

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., a powerful and opaque committee led by the Treasury Department, polices foreign investment in the U.S. for national security risks. In recent years it has stepped up bans on Chinese investments in sensitive U.S. tech firms, slowing them to a trickle.

Chinese investment in the U.S. plummeted from $56.6 billion in 2016 to just $3.5 billion last year, according to Rhodium Group.

Bessent said that investments from Chinese retailers are among those less likely to draw a CFIUS review.

“Luckin Coffee is great, but buying a whole bunch of land next to an Air Force base probably isn’t,” Bessent said, referring to the Chinese coffee chain expanding in the U.S. to challenge Starbucks.

AI CONSULTATIONS

U.S. and Chinese officials will likely start to consult with each other on AI guardrails within the next four to eight weeks, Bessent said. The effort is aimed at halting proliferation of powerful AI models, such as Anthropic’s Mythos, or tools from China’s DeepSeek to non-state actors, he added.

Concern is growing over the national security risks posed by powerful AI systems, which companies and analysts have warned could supercharge complex cyberattacks by identifying and exploiting previously unknown vulnerabilities faster than companies can repair them.

(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Richard Lough and Nick Zieminski)

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Federal Jury Dismisses Elon Musk’s $150 Billion Lawsuit Against OpenAI as Untimely  

A federal jury in Oakland, California, ruled unanimously that billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk waited too long to file his $150 billion lawsuit against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman, leading a judge to dismiss the case as untimely.  

US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers immediately adopted the jury’s advisory verdict after jurors concluded that the statute of limitations had expired. The decision followed a three-week trial in federal court.  

The nine-member jury deliberated for less than two hours before reaching its conclusion.  

Musk had accused Altman and OpenAI President Greg Brockman of breaching fiduciary duties and abandoning OpenAI’s original nonprofit mission in favor of a heavily commercialized for-profit structure supported by Microsoft.  

According to Musk’s claims, Altman violated a nonprofit agreement after Musk donated $38 million to OpenAI. Musk argued that Altman accepted his funding while concealing plans to transform the company into a profit-driven business focused on generating personal wealth rather than developing artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity.  

OpenAI’s legal team successfully argued that Musk had known for years about the company’s plans to adopt a for-profit structure and had delayed filing the lawsuit until 2024.  

The ruling removes a significant legal obstacle for OpenAI as the company prepares for a widely anticipated initial public offering that could reportedly value the firm at roughly $1 trillion.  

Following the decision, Musk criticized the ruling on X, describing the dismissal as a “calendar technicality.” His attorney, Marc Toberoff, said Musk’s legal team plans to appeal to the Ninth Circuit.  

Musk also renewed his accusations against Altman and Brockman in a post on X.  

“Altman & Brockman did in fact enrich themselves by stealing a charity. The only question is WHEN they did it!” Musk wrote. “Creating a precedent to loot ⁠charities is incredibly destructive to charitable giving in America.” 

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