ISIS Possesses $300 Million in Cryptocurrency As Treasury Concealed, Study States

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Azeez Mustapha

Updated: 13 October 2022

ISIS received up to $ 300 million in crypto donations, according to the Counter Extremism Project (CEP), an NGO research center that sheds light on the corporate and financial operations of terrorist groups around the world.

In its April report, named cryptocurrencies as threats to public safety and counter-terrorism: risk analysis and regulatory challenges, CEP said terrorist organizations are now using cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoins, to fund their operations. Those funds were obtained through donations or hacking.

Hans-Jakob Schindler, director of the CEP and member of the UN Security Council on Al-Qaeda and ISIS, told The National that there has been no progress since 2017 in locating the $300 million ISIS is thought to have. Schindler claims cryptocurrency holds that.

He added that when referring to cryptocurrencies, “from the get-go, ISIS was interested in what can be achieved with this new technology.

For years the CEP has been tracking ISIS finances. Within its research, it cited many cases where Bitcoin was used to finance terrorist operations including the 2019 Easter Sunday attack within Sri Lanka that took more than 250 lives. Earlier an ex-CIA agent also said that terrorists are using crypto.

The presence of ISIS in cryptocurrency in 2015 led to it becoming the first militant organization to be formally charged when a teenager, Ali Shukri Amin, was sentenced to jail.

Terrorists Use of Digital Currency
The financial needs of ISIS go beyond backing terror. “It’s a big financial package to help eight million people — which is now the size of the population living in ISIS-controlled territories,” says Luay al-Khateeb, a visiting fellow at the Doha Brookings Center and head of the Iraq Energy Institute in Bagdad. “ISIS still helps tens of thousands of fighters who have been in battle for months, with recruits coming in regularly.

But it holds all these people accountable, appears to have tremendous cross-border mobility, and shows no signs of running out of money or fuel right now.”