Share this article
Researcher Suggests ISIS is Fundraising with Bitcoin
Updated Sep 11, 2021, 11:28 a.m. Published Jan 29, 2015, 12:40 p.m.
New research from Singapore-based web intelligence firm S2T suggests Islamic State (ISIS) could be using bitcoin for fundraising.
Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz has reported that S2T analyst Ido Wulkan managed to find concrete evidence linking an ISIS cell based in the US to fundraising activities. The cell apparently used the dark web and bitcoin to cover its tracks.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
Wulkan found a dark web site that urged supporters to donate bitcoin to the cause. The message, posted by a user named Abu Mustafa, stated that bitcoin donations are accepted by the cell.
"There was smoke, and now we have found the fire," Wulkan told Haaretz.
The bitcoin address listed on the site received around 5 BTC before being shut down. Furthermore, Wulkan said this could be a one-off fundraising effort, or even a hoax or a joke.
This is not the first time ISIS has been associated with bitcoin. A blog affiliated with the militant group discussed the possibility of using bitcoin for fundraising last year, but no evidence of bitcoin use by ISIS was ever found.
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
Fed’s Hammack tilts hawkish on rates, questions CPI drop as distorted
"My base case is that we can stay here for some period of time," Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack told the WSJ.
What to know:
- Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack, who will be a voter on the central bank's policy-making FOMC in 2026, says interest rates need to remain on hold for several months.
- She threw shade on last week's surprisingly soft CPI report, noting data-collection distortions created by the government shutdown.
- Other things being equal, bitcoin would typically benefit from easier Fed monetary policy, but that hasn't at all been the case in 2025.
Top Stories
