DOJ, FBI Seize $560,000 in Crypto, Take Control of Domains Tied to Hamas Fundraising

The Justice Department said Tuesday that the FBI seized about $560,000 in cryptocurrency and took control of web domains and servers, including AlQassam.ps, in a court-authorized operation targeting what the department described as an ongoing Hamas fundraising and recruitment scheme.

The department said the operation disrupted online infrastructure allegedly controlled by Hamas on behalf of its military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, and yielded information on “thousands of individuals” who contacted Hamas online to donate. The DOJ said that information will be used in future counterterrorism efforts.

According to the DOJ and unsealed seizure affidavits, the fundraising effort directed supporters from an encrypted group chat to a website that generated rotating cryptocurrency donation addresses. Investigators identified the wallets and seized funds using human sources and blockchain analysis, the department said. DOJ identified AlQassam.ps as the main website of the Al Qassam Brigades.

The Justice Department announced the action Sept. 1, 2026, and said the seizures were executed under court-authorized seizure warrants. Three unsealed cryptocurrency seizure warrants were dated March 25, 2025, June 25, 2025, and Oct. 10, 2025. Court papers released with the announcement show how some of the seizures were carried out: They directed cooperation from crypto service providers, including instructions for Tether to burn and reissue identified USDT to FBI-controlled wallets and for Binance to transfer balances from specified accounts to FBI-controlled wallets.

The FBI Albuquerque Field Office led the investigation, working with the bureau’s Counterterrorism Division, Cyber Division and New York Field Office, according to the DOJ. The department did not announce criminal charges tied to these seizures in Tuesday’s press release.

Hamas has been designated by the U.S. government as a Foreign Terrorist Organization since Oct. 8, 1997, a status that makes fundraising on its behalf a terrorism-financing matter for U.S. authorities. Tuesday’s announcement is also not the first such operation. In August 2020, the DOJ announced a similar action targeting terror-finance cyber campaigns, including the Al-Qassam Brigades, and said at the time that it seized cryptocurrency and intercepted related websites.

“Hamas relied on cryptocurrency and online platforms to solicit funds from donors around the world and move that money outside the formal financial system,” Brett Leatherman, assistant director of the FBI’s Cyber Division, said in the DOJ press release. The department said no charges were announced in connection with this latest seizure action.