According to the publication, from July 2021 to October 2023, Israeli authorities froze 143 wallets associated with terrorist organizations on the Tron network. Almost two-thirds of them – 87 – belonged to Lebanese Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an ally of Hamas. Groups designated as terrorist organizations choose the Tron network because it is faster and cheaper than the Bitcoin network.
“It used to be Bitcoin, and now our data shows that terrorist organizations are increasingly favoring Tron,” said Mriganka Pattnaik, CEO of New York-based blockchain analytics firm Merkle Science.
A Tron spokesperson explained that all technologies “can theoretically be used for questionable activities.” He cited the example of US dollars, which are used for money laundering. More than a dozen people whose funds were frozen told Reuters they used Tron. However, they said they used the network for their business and denied any connection to Hamas or Islamic Jihad.
The day before, Elliptic analysts reported that the use of cryptocurrencies to finance terrorists is extremely insignificant – the Hamas movement has received no more than $21,000 since October 7, and most of the cryptocurrencies have been blocked. It recently became known that the Wirex crypto-fiat transfer system has a black market for verified accounts that can be used to launder money in the Russian Federation.
Source: Bits
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