Talk about the drop of water rather than the ocean. The mainstream media, always quick to conflating cryptocurrencies and terrorism to smear the sector, seem to have found a new target: the network Tron (TRX) founded by Justin Sun. In any case, the media Reuters does a “focus” article on an alleged change in preference of the Hamas Who, after giving up on Bitcoin (BTC) for a long time (no case of seizure since 2021), would now use the TRX blockchain network.
143 TRON “wallets” (accounts?) seized, possibly intended for Hamas and Hezbollah
Although the amounts received in cryptocurrencies by organizations classified as terrorists are completely paltry compared to payments with fiat currenciessome media prefer heavily insist on the former rather than the latter.
This time, it is the Reuters media which devotes a “focus” article to the supposed choice of Tron as a new crypto network “privileged” for groups of Hamas And Hezbollah :
“Faster and cheaper, Tron has overtaken Bitcoin as a platform for crypto transfers associated with groups designated as terrorist organizations by Israel and the United States (…) The Israeli National Office to Combat Terrorism Financing ( NBCTF) (…) froze (sic) 143 Tron wallets between July 2021 and October 2023. (…) Nearly two thirds of these seizures of Tron wallets, precisely 87, took place this year 2023. »
Excerpt from the Reuters “focus” article
What amounts are at stake? We don’t know (in fact, we don’t even know their destination!)
According to Israel, on the 87 wallets TRX entered this year: 39 would belong to Hezbollah Lebanese; 26 wallets Palestinian Islamic Jihad ; and finally 56 which would be linked to Hamas. Rather than crypto wallets strictly speaking (elusive and even less “freezable” without obtaining the private keys) the majority of these would be accounts on a centralized exchange platform called “Dubai Co”based in Gaza.
Is it because they are ridiculously weak ? In any case, the usually proudly displayed amounts of money seizures are here curiously not even vaguely estimated. The Reuters media even admits that we are not sure that all these seized accounts are really intended to finance Islamic groups. But on the other hand, crypto-assets are well soiled one more time.
“Estimates of the amount of money reaching proscribed groups through cryptocurrencies are unreliable, as it is difficult to say whether the money sent to seized wallets was actually intended for these groups. »
Excerpt from the Reuters “focus” article
Justin Sun reminds us that crypto networks aim above all to be decentralized
The founder of the TRX network, Justin Sunseems to have wanted react to this (almost gratuitous) attack against exchanges on Tron. He therefore wishes to recall that decentralization remains the number one objective of his cryptocurrency project:
“TRON is a decentralized protocol, similar to Bitcoin and Ethereum, with nodes operating around the world. Global Super Reps are responsible for executing this protocol. While we are committed to combating terrorist financing by integrating various analytics projects and partners, our top priority remains maintaining decentralization, ensuring the security of everyone’s assets, and providing instant, affordable and reliable transactions , as has always been the case. (…) »
Justin Sun
According to a recent, and excellent, report from Chain Analysis – of true (for now) specialists in on-chain transactions – “the financing of terrorism only representsa very small part of the already very low share of the volume of illicit cryptocurrency transactions. Thus, while the mainstream media recently suggested that “82 million dollars” in cryptocurrencies could have been used to finance terrorism by Hamas, only $450,000 would have actually been intended for this purpose. But Reuters prefers to deal with the crypto water drop instead of the ocean financing with fiat currencies classics.