Tether and Binance freeze accounts linked to the war in Israel

Tether declares to have blocked from addresses related to war at Israel. The exchange Binance closed a hundred accounts since theHamas attack in early October, according to FT.

The stablecoin issuer Tether announced on Monday that it had freeze 32 addresses containing a total of $873,000 and linked to “illicit activities” in Israel and in Ukrainewithout specifying the dates of the freezes or the number of addresses associated with the two separate conflicts.

Tether is working with the NBCTF in Israel to combat crypto-currency-funded terrorism and war,” added the firm behind USDT, the world’s largest stablecoin in terms of market cap.

Citing people close to the matter, the Financial Times also reported that the Binance had closed ” more than 100 accounts “following the Hamas attack on October 7.

The number 1 in crypto-trading said it had closed a “small number” of accounts, without giving a precise figure, in order to comply with international sanctions.

The war between Israel and Hamas has rekindled governments’ fears about the use of crypto-currencies by terrorists.

“Every transaction is recorded on the blockchain, allowing anyone to track the movement of funds. As a result, criminals stupid enough to use crypto-currencies for illegal purposes will inevitably be identified,” commented Paolo Ardoino, Tether’s new boss.

Although easily traceable, Bitcoin and consorts remain today one of the only options available to terrorist networks to raise funds.

Earlier this year, blockchain expert TRM Labs reported that terrorists particularly favored Tether’s stablecoin.

“In line with these reports, TRM Labs has found increasing on-chain evidence over the past 12 months that pro-ISIS networks in Tajikistan, Indonesia, Pakistan and Afghanistan have used crypto-currencies to help them carry out their activities. Almost all of the transactions associated with the cases below were conducted using Tether (USDT) on the Tron network (TRX), a growing trend that TRM is observing in this space,” the blockchain analytics company wrote on its blog in July.

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