Hamas, Hezbollah Now Prefer Tron to Bitcoin: Reuters
Almost two-thirds of Israel's Tron seizures were in 2023, including 39 from wallets Israel said in June were owned by Lebanon's Hezbollah and 26 in July from Hamas ally Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
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The Tron blockchain has overtaken Bitcoin as the cryptocurrency network most favored by groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, which are designated as terror organizations by the U.S., U.K. and other jurisdictions, Reuters reported on Monday.
There has been a sharp rise in cryptocurrency seizures from Tron wallets since 2021 and a decline in those from Bitcoin wallets, Reuters' analysis found.
Israel has made 87 such seizures from Tron wallets this year, two-thirds of the total number going back to July 2021. These include 39 from wallets the country said in June were owned by Lebanon-based Hezbollah and 26 in July from Hamas ally Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
"Earlier it was Bitcoin and now our data shows that these terrorist organizations tend to increasingly favor Tron," Mriganka Pattnaik, CEO of blockchain analysis firm Merkle Science, said.
In response to the research, Tron spokesperson Hayward Wong told Reuters all technologies could "in theory be used for questionable activities," adding that Tron did not have control over those using its network.
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Jamie Crawley is a CoinDesk news reporter based in London.