Bitcin does not support financial crimes and is not involve in political affairs

[Agbamoni]

I received a mail on my inbox. It took me some days before i went through my inbox and i read it.



This is the full content of the email. here

There is a major scandal brewing at the Wall Street Journal related to their bitcoin coverage. Two reporters, Angus Berwick and Ian Talley, recently wrote an article titled “Hamas Militants Behind Israel Attack Raised Millions in Crypto.”
The article claimed that Hamas and their affiliates raised approximately $130 million in cryptocurrency donations. For obvious reasons, this would be very concerning if it was true. That is a big “if” though.
Elliptic, the platform that the Wall Street Journal reporters allegedly used to come up with this analysis, came out publicly yesterday and said that the analysis is wrong. In fact, the Elliptic team wrote in a statement “there is no evidence to suggest that crypto fundraising has raised anything close to this amount, and data provided by Elliptic and others has been misinterpreted.”
That should be the end of the story, right?
Unfortunately no. More than 100 lawmakers came together to sign a letter to national security leadership calling for a crackdown on cryptocurrencies. What was their argument? That the Wall Street Journal article proved that terrorists were using cryptocurrency to raise obnoxious amounts of money.
Think about how ridiculous this situation is.
The Wall Street Journal published an article that is inaccurate. That article was read by hundreds of our lawmakers, who then decided to create pressure on other administration officials based on the inaccurate information.
The mainstream media is programming the brains of our lawmakers with fake news.
There has been no retraction of the story from the journalists.
They are actually doubling down on Twitter/X and refusing to acknowledge their mistake, although the platform they used to do the analysis has publicly said they are wrong.
There has been no comment or retraction of the letter from lawmakers that is now proven to be based on false information.
The scary part in this scenario is that if lawmakers are so easily swayed by inaccurate reporting, we should ask ourselves what other legislation is being proposed after someone consumed inaccurate information?
This brings me to a point that I made on CNBC’s Squawk Box yesterday. Bitcoin does not care about the politics in Washington DC. The asset is oblivious to what is happening in the world.
If the US was to take the extreme measure of banning or outlawing bitcoin, the rest of the world would continue to adopt the technology. They may even accelerate their adoption because it would be seen as a positive sign that bitcoin is outside of the US system.
So while our politicians are being tricked by the mainstream media, it would still not solve the problem that they are claiming to want to solve.
Bad people are going to do bad things with technology, regardless of the rules. If the US took the most extreme steps at home, it would not stop criminals from trying to use the technology.
Thankfully, the criminals are one step ahead in this situation though and they have figured out that using a public ledger for committing crimes is a horrible idea.
The market has solved the problem and does not require new rules or regulations.
We have to be very careful that we do not simply become a country where the creation of regulations is the norm. We should want the least regulations possible while still accomplishing our overarching goals.
The whole situation on this topic is unfortunate. The media was likely trying their best to do good work and analysis. The lawmakers took the information and analysis at face value. It is easy to see how we got here.
Now that we know the information is inaccurate, the media should retract and/or correct the article and lawmakers should publicly correct their comments as well.

There is a misconception and i want to focus my discussion on some key points

1. Bitcoin itself is not tied to any financial crimes. Yes, it can be use by criminals as a means to receive payment from. There is a difference between misuse by individuals and the Bitcoin technology itself. Bad people are going to do bad things just like the sender said, regardless of the rules surrounding the technology. Even if there is a law to stop Bitcoin in a particular country criminals will not still stop to use the technology in other countries. 

2. Government and Information should consider focusing on the need for accurate information before disseminating it to the public. This incident was caused by misinformation that has led to the sudden hash government actions and decision towards cryptocurrency especially the pioneer Bitcoin.

3.  Hasty decision based on inaccurate information can cause a huge consequence not on Bitcoin but to the society at large. The law makers should have conducted through investigation before proposing to take actions on anything. These scenario has exposed the envies of the lawmakers and government heads towards bitcoin and its technology.

[oktana]

Forget all of these, before guns and bombs were invented, people were already killing people. Before crypto, weren’t people being paid in fiat to do illegal activities. Haven’t politicians been doing all of this before 2008? Now Bitcoin is coming up, there are a lot of fingers pointing at it, countries have banned it as if their politicians don’t use it behind the scene. All Satoshi built was a currency accessible to everyone (just like fiat is), so I don’t see why they keep pointing at Bitcoin. If all of these happened in USD, will people highlight USD as a bad currency?

[Jegileman]

Forget all of these, before guns and bombs were invented, people were already killing people. Before crypto, weren’t people being paid in fiat to do illegal activities. Haven’t politicians been doing all of this before 2008? Now Bitcoin is coming up, there are a lot of fingers pointing at it, countries have banned it as if their politicians don’t use it behind the scene. All Satoshi built was a currency accessible to everyone (just like fiat is), so I don’t see why they keep pointing at Bitcoin. If all of these happened in USD, will people highlight USD as a bad currency?

It is just too obvious that the government and its people don’t want the legalization of bitcoin neither do they want the consensus of decentralization in which it operates. This is not the first time we have been hearing many negativity being attached to the name of bitcoin and it continues always. Before the coming of bitcoin, fiat was used for many illegal purposes and that hasn’t stopped till date. Both of them are being used for good and bad purposes but that doesn’t mean we should dislike or give a negative and permanent thought about them in which it was not what they were built on to do.

[bluebit25]

Selfish people often find every reason and justification for their own wrongdoing, similarly Bitcoin will also have its haters. It doesn't need to satisfy anyone's unreasonable desires anyway, even if they object to it more, the truth will never be killed, and the truth here is that people will accept Bitcoin more. Well, mentioning the word OP reminds me of another story about a pen, when the user has the right to use it for their own purposes, and when the murderer uses it as a weapon, will people conclude that? That pen is the culprit. The main issue is how responsible people are when using that tool.

[kentrolla]

This is nothing more than a smear campaign against Bitcoin which the government and other mainstream media always does and this time it has utilized the ongoing conflict to gain more traction. There were wars, terrorism and illegal funding long before Bitcoin's presence and they are trying to link terrorism with Bitcoin & crypto to tarnish it's image and to create some sort of fear in people's mind about crypto. It's better baseless as usual, They will fail this time as well like they did in the past and it's a failure ont heir part that they didn't speculate this and had proper Intel about the conflict and now trying to shift the blame over crypto currency. These conflicts are happening for over 50 years and we should question the. that if crypto is used as a medium to collect donations then what was the medium which was used for terror funding before existence of crypto.

We just need to ignore these news as people with even slightest common sense would understand the intention of this news as they used similar claim for isis as well.

[wallet4bitcoin]

Bitcoin was not designed to choose what kind of financial dealings it should be used for.

Individuals choose what they want to do with their Bitcoin, once its finance, Bitcoin can be used irrespective of the nature of the transaction its to be used for, there is no where in the transaction where it is stated what kind of transaction it is except for narration of transaction but that's a man made input and not a techie input.

[Fivestar4everMVP]

Well, like oktana have said, crimes have been since way past, criminals have been stealing, kidnappers have been kidnapping, serial killers have been doing their job with high sophisticated weapons, to simply put, crimes have been since the creation of man, so i am personally wondering why this set of people we call the government or lawmakers are acting like they don't know all this, they are acting like it was at the emergence of bitcoin that crimes slipped into our society, which is utterly a big lie and high delusional.

The lawmakers are particularly concerned that a huge amount of money was raised through cryptocurrencies, which was later reported to be false, but the lawmakers still will not withdraw back their request to go after bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, i would say that this attitude from this so-called lawmakers is nothing but out of their personal hate for bitcoin and crypto, if asked, will they say NO, that no illegal funding have ever been successfully done through fiat? How does criminals make payment for guns on the dark web before 2008? how was human trafficking funded before 2008? how were serial killers funded before 2008? all this are questions they know the answer to, but might not want to say the truth.

Bitcoin is here to stay, regardless of what ever anyone does.

[Dunamisx]

Maybe we should start first by asking more about those who inbox you, how did they get you, how did they know you're a bitcoiner, this is what we should first considers right before going deep into what the content says, people are free to use money for any reason they like but not for financial crimes, yet people steal money, scam other ones and we cannot do anything about it than we should try as much as possible in educating them about how to safely get secured from hackers or scammers.

[SamReomo]

Maybe we should start first by asking more about those who inbox you, how did they get you, how did they know you're a bitcoiner, this is what we should first considers right before going deep into what the content says, people are free to use money for any reason they like but not for financial crimes, yet people steal money, scam other ones and we cannot do anything about it than we should try as much as possible in educating them about how to safely get secured from hackers or scammers.

I guess that's going to be helpful because the OP didn't mentioned that how he received the mail and from whom did he received that mail. I don't think that such allegations are any new in the sphere of Bitcoin and those type of allegations against Bitcoin will take place every here and there.

I remember that during the times of Russia-Ukraine war such type of false allegations against Bitcoin were raised and now those same people are again raising such allegations to defame Bitcoin. Their main point is to show that Bitcoin is used for crime activities but they never show the truth that fiat and other payment systems are also used for crime activities.

Bitcoin is a payment system and it depends on the users who are part of the payment system. They get their own personal wallets and from those wallets they can send their Bitcoin to anyone they want. Criminals or even laymen can have their Bitcoin wallets and people can have literally millions of wallets without any restrictions. Bitcoin is for everyone, and it is on the mentality of someone that how he/she uses it.

[taufik123]

-snip-
3.  Hasty decision based on inaccurate information can cause a huge consequence not on Bitcoin but to the society at large. The law makers should have conducted through investigation before proposing to take actions on anything. These scenario has exposed the envies of the lawmakers and government heads towards bitcoin and its technology.

LOL, they are jealous because they can't fully control Bitcoin or crypto and don't get rewarded for their transactions.
If Bitcoin is associated as a tool to support acts of war, the wrong thing is not the tool but the user.
Like criminals using dollars to buy guns and bombs.

Random emails like this that are sent to many people just want to do propaganda, and spread bad news about Bitcoin or the crimes of one of the camps.

Especially the US which openly supports the Zionists.
There will be no point in banning Bitcoin, Bitcoin cannot be regulated by anyone and they can only provide regulations in their country.

[mk4]

"this would be very concerning if it was true"

Even if it was true, why are they even trying to paint it as if all this fiasco was all because of bitcoin/crypto lmao. All these kinds of crimes existed even before bitcoin, and even without bitcoin they'll just be using the typical fiat currency.

[SquirrelJulietGarden]

What a strange email and its content you received. It's likely your email is leaked then you received those spam emails.

Did you check your email address with https://haveibeenpwned.com/?
If you did not, it's time to do it.

Would you mind sharing the email address of the sender, please?

Knowing about that email, people can be more careful and they can proactively block that address in their email inbox.

Bitcoin Blac..., what's this?

[Darker45]

I guess a major point in this particular situation is that raw information are oftentimes not black and white. Those who use them without thoroughly understanding them, their context, nuances, perspectives, and so on are the ones who particularly mislead others.

Thus, digesting and properly appreciating information are a responsibility, or even necessary capabilities, especially to personalities who have the influence either to shape a certain perception of the public or to create policies and regulations that will be implemented by the government and affect everybody else.

In which case, both Angus Berwick and Ian Talley of the Wall Street Journal, the journal itself, Senator Elizabeth Warren and the other more than a hundred lawmakers who signed the letter sent to no less than the White House and the Department of Treasury destroying the image of cryptocurrency, are all a big failure.

It's either they are incapable of digesting such data or they're biased or they're simply irresponsible. Either way, they should have just avoided acting on them.

They don't seem to know what a Bitcoin wallet is, or a Bitcoin address, or the difference between a centralized and decentralized platform, and so on.

[Plaguedeath]

Seeing how Israel attacking refugee camp, mosque, hospital, woman and kids, my assumption the coins that linked to Hamas might be incorrect, it could be be owned by Palestine's civil or government. Israel is want to make sure they will beat Palestine, that's why they try to reduce wealth or donation to Palestine.

I don't understand why Bitcoin is always been mentioned relate to scam, crime, terrorist, money laundering etc when they aka SEC, Chainalysis, CEX etc have been freeze the coins that they suspect, isn't Bitcoin no longer related to illegal activity when they keep freeze the coins?

[pooya87]

This is a very old FUD that they keep using and spread it more whenever bitcoin is starting to rise again because each time the bull market starts it attracts a large number of people and they want to at least slow it down. So if they can scare even 1% into staying away from bitcoin they consider it a success in their battles against bitcoin.

[Dimitri94]

1. Bitcoin itself is not tied to any financial crimes. Yes, it can be use by criminals as a means to receive payment from. There is a difference between misuse by individuals and the Bitcoin technology itself. Bad people are going to do bad things just like the sender said, regardless of the rules surrounding the technology. Even if there is a law to stop Bitcoin in a particular country criminals will not still stop to use the technology in other countries. 

When Bitcoin wasn't invented, can we say that there was no crime? Of course there were lot of crimes at that time happening by fiat money and it is still continuing, As we know that Bitcoin or cryptocurrency transactions can remain anonymous. So anyone can use it to keep them safe. Bitcoin is not to blame here. It will be used as we use it. Those who commit crimes should be brought under the law. We won't find a healthy solution just by keeping one country away from using Bitcoin. The era has changed so the government of any country has to find solutions depending on technology.

[yhiaali3]

This is complete nonsense. Firstly, there is no proof that Hamas used Bitcoin in its surprise attack on Israel. Secondly, even if it is proven that they used Bitcoin, what is the difference? What does Bitcoin have to do with the story? If they ban Bitcoin won't Hamas fighters be able to raise money again???!!!

They've done this many times even before Bitcoin existed, so why all the hype? It is better for them to focus on ending the war between the Palestinians and the Israelis rather than ignite a new war against Bitcoin.

[nutildah]

This is an instance where the blockchain analysis companies are actually on the side of the average crypto user. As referenced in the OP, here's the article by Elliptic:

https://www.elliptic.co/blog/setting-the-record-straight-on-crypto-crowdfunding-by-hamas

Key takeaways:

- there's no actual evidence to support the WSJ's allegations
- Hamas BTC donations peaked in 2019
- their fundraiser website was shut down by the Department of Justice in 2020
- they stopped accepting crypto donations altogether by April 2023

[Ale88]

There is a misconception and i want to focus my discussion on some key points

1. Bitcoin itself is not tied to any financial crimes. Yes, it can be use by criminals as a means to receive payment from. There is a difference between misuse by individuals and the Bitcoin technology itself. Bad people are going to do bad things just like the sender said, regardless of the rules surrounding the technology. Even if there is a law to stop Bitcoin in a particular country criminals will not still stop to use the technology in other countries. 

2. Government and Information should consider focusing on the need for accurate information before disseminating it to the public. This incident was caused by misinformation that has led to the sudden hash government actions and decision towards cryptocurrency especially the pioneer Bitcoin.

3.  Hasty decision based on inaccurate information can cause a huge consequence not on Bitcoin but to the society at large. The law makers should have conducted through investigation before proposing to take actions on anything. These scenario has exposed the envies of the lawmakers and government heads towards bitcoin and its technology.

I never understood post/emails like the one you pasted: everything is just a tool, how we decide to use it makes the difference, that's it. Otherwise I could say that screwdrivers are bad people you can kill someone using one; same thing with cars, you can use them to run away after committing a crime; you can use cell phones to organize a robbery, and so on. And years ago there actually have been researches about the amount of cryptos actually used by criminals and the percentage was ridiculously low, nothing compared to cash for example.

[Essential10]

Hamas has been at war with Israel long before Bitcoin was born. There is no question of Bitcoin or cryptocurrency financial transactions being involved in this matter. This seems to me to be a plan to politically alienate Bitcoin from everyone. Political discussions about Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies can always create a divide in the workforce. Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies are a hot topic of political discussion all over the world. Governments have tried to regulate the use of Bitcoin and are negotiating its investment terms. Some cryptocurrency investments are being used for other purposes, which may include illegal entities. However, some media's claims about Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies are baseless.