U.S. authorities have escalated their campaign against cryptocurrency fundraising linked to Hamas, according to a report published by CoinDesk. The Department of Justice said crypto seizures connected to the effort have reached about $560,000, while FBI agents took control of domains and servers — specifically the site Alqassam.ps — in order to intercept donations and prevent further fundraising for the Al-Qassam Brigades.
The Al-Qassam Brigades are the armed wing of Hamas, which the United States has designated as a foreign terrorist organization. Because of that designation, soliciting or transmitting funds to the group is illegal under U.S. law, and assets tied to such solicitation can be subject to seizure and forfeiture proceedings. Seizing a domain and its underlying servers is a step beyond simply freezing wallets: it allows investigators to take over the online infrastructure that potential donors visit, cutting off the channel through which new deposit addresses would normally be advertised.
The reported figure of roughly $560,000 refers to the cumulative value of crypto tied to the investigation that the Justice Department says has been seized. Additional specifics — such as which tokens or blockchains were involved, the number of individual wallets affected, and the precise timeline of each seizure — were not contained in the summary available at the time of writing, and readers who want the full detail should consult the original CoinDesk article and any accompanying court or Justice Department filings.
Actions of this kind have become a recurring feature of digital-asset enforcement. Public blockchains record transactions permanently and openly, which means that once investigators identify an address associated with a designated group, they can often map the flow of funds across the network and follow them to exchanges or service providers where a real-world identity may be attached. Law enforcement agencies routinely work with blockchain analytics firms and with exchanges that operate know-your-customer programs to freeze balances before they can be cashed out. That transparency is one reason enforcement officials have argued that crypto is a poor long-term tool for sanctioned actors, even as critics point to the speed and borderless nature of on-chain transfers as an ongoing risk.
For the crypto industry, cases like this feed directly into an active policy debate. Regulators and lawmakers in several jurisdictions continue to weigh how far exchanges, wallet providers and infrastructure operators should be required to go in monitoring and blocking illicit flows, and enforcement actions involving terrorist financing are frequently cited in those discussions. Compliance teams at trading venues typically respond to publicized seizures by screening the addresses named in filings and reviewing any historical exposure.
The dollar amounts in terrorist-financing cases are usually modest compared with the volumes moved across major blockchains each day, and this case is no exception in absolute terms. Its significance lies more in the enforcement method — the takeover of the fundraising website itself — than in the sum recovered.
Broader market coverage on the same day pointed to a generally firmer tone across digital assets. CoinDesk reported that bitcoin had moved back above $77,500 and that XRP was leading the major tokens, with market-implied odds of a Federal Reserve rate hike slipping to 62%. There is no indication that the seizure news influenced those moves, and enforcement announcements of this size historically have limited direct effect on prices. Nothing about this development should be read as a signal about the future direction of any asset.
What comes next will likely be visible in the public record. Forfeiture cases typically proceed through federal court, where filings can disclose the addresses, exchanges and intermediaries involved. Whether further seizures follow, and whether any individuals are charged in connection with the fundraising network, remain open questions.
This is a news summary for general information only — not financial advice, and nothing here is a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any asset. Always verify against the original source and do your own research before making a financial decision.
Source: CoinDesk · 2026-09-03
