Federal authorities have said they seized more than $560,000 in cryptocurrency allegedly destined for the Hamas terrorist group.

The FBI seized website domains and servers used to raise funds and recruit members for the Hamas military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said on Sept. 1.

“A message to Hamas: We will stop your fundraising for terror,” said Jeanine Ferris Pirro, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. “Your networks are not secure, your crypto is vulnerable, and we will not stop until your ability to wage war is defeated.” 

Investigators used information from multiple human sources to trace and seize cryptocurrency intended to support Hamas’s military wings under three unsealed warrants issued last year, the DOJ said.

The FBI also obtained information on thousands of individuals who contacted Hamas online seeking to donate to the terrorist group using cryptocurrency and other traditional means. The DOJ said the information will be used in the bureau’s future counterterrorism efforts.

“These seizures deprive Hamas of resources it relies on to recruit and radicalize individuals online and finance barbaric attacks like the one on October 7, 2023,” John A. Eisenberg, assistant attorney general for national security, said in a statement.

According to FBI affidavits filed in connection with the seizures, Hamas began testing virtual currency fundraising in about early 2019 through its Al-Qassam Brigades, or military wing, and solicited donations on its Telegram channel and also used direct online fundraising. Hamas officials bragged that the currency would be untraceable, and their websites offered instructions for how to make anonymous donations, the affidavits state.

A major investigative break came last year when FBI officials identified a financing network soliciting donations to the Al-Qassam Brigades via virtual currency, and a confidential source located in the United States alerted law enforcement to a Telegram post asking for contributions to an email address associated with Hamas.

“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 statement.

The United States designated Hamas as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace has proposed a plan to resolve the conflict in the Gaza Strip that calls for the complete disarmament of Hamas and other armed groups, as well as the withdrawal of Israeli forces. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Aug. 9 that Israeli forces will not withdraw until Hamas is fully disarmed.

The Associated Press and Naveen Athrappully contributed to this report.