FBI Turns Hamas Fundraising Network Into a Trap, Seizes $560,000 and Gathers Data on Thousands of Would-Be Donors

The FBI seized more than $560,000 in cryptocurrency intended for Hamas and took control of domains and servers powering the terror group’s online fundraising and recruitment system. The operation also gave investigators information on thousands of people who contacted Hamas seeking to donate through cryptocurrency or traditional payment methods, according to the Justice Department.

This was far more than a wallet freeze. Federal agents captured infrastructure tied to AlQassam.ps, the principal website used by Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades, disrupting channels used to collect money, communicate with supporters and recruit for the terrorist organization. Control of the infrastructure allowed the FBI to intercept donations before they reached Hamas. “Your networks are not secure, your crypto is vulnerable,” U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro warned.

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Unsealed court documents reveal how agents penetrated the operation. A confidential source in the United States spotted a Hamas fundraising message on Telegram and contacted an email address published by the Al-Qassam Brigades. Hamas responded with instructions to transfer USDT, a dollar-linked cryptocurrency, through a temporary wallet address on the TRON network.

The instructions read like a guide to avoiding law enforcement. Donors were told not to identify Hamas as the recipient, not to transfer funds directly from Binance and to route the money through other wallet services. Hamas periodically changed the wallet address, with each address intended for only one transfer. Investigators repeated the process through multiple confidential sources, collected new addresses and followed the money through consolidation wallets, exchanges and suspected financial mules.

One FBI affidavit estimates that the financing network received more than $3 million in donations and remained active months before the infrastructure seizures. The digital trail also passed through an internet provider in Tehran before later relying on infrastructure connected to American hosting and domain services, giving U.S. authorities an opening to move against it.

The $560,000 figure represents three separate court-authorized cryptocurrency seizures rather than one sudden raid. An earlier phase recovered approximately $201,400 in USDT from wallets and exchange accounts tied to a system that had already laundered more than $1.5 million. Subsequent warrants expanded both the amount recovered and the scope of the operation, culminating in the seizure of the online infrastructure itself.

Hamas has promoted cryptocurrency for years as an anonymous way to finance terrorism beyond the reach of banks. But blockchain transactions leave a permanent public record. In an earlier U.S. operation, investigators seized 150 cryptocurrency accounts linked to the Al-Qassam Brigades and covertly operated one of its websites, causing people attempting to finance Hamas to send money into wallets controlled by the United States instead.

The strategic damage may now exceed the value of the confiscated funds. The Justice Department said undermining donor confidence was a central goal: Hamas supporters can no longer know whether a donation address, email account or website is genuinely controlled by the terror group or has already been compromised by the FBI.

No new charges against individual donors were announced, but the Justice Department said the information collected on thousands of contacts will be used in future counterterrorism efforts. Hamas lost hundreds of thousands of dollars and critical infrastructure. Its would-be financiers may have handed American investigators something even more valuable: their digital identities.