Israel to Apply Anti-Terror Banking Rules to Cryptocurrencies: Report

Israel’s Authority for Combating Terror Financing and Money Laundering will reportedly impose new regulations on various digital financial products, with cryptocurrencies being some of them.

The government unit raised hopes that the legislation will diminish crypto’s use in criminal activities and grant more support to the local investors.

Clear Standards for Crypto

A recent report by the Jerusalem Post reads that Israel intends to increase the clarity in the digital asset sector by applying anti-terror banking rules to bitcoin and the altcoins.

Previously, the authorities had to spend significant resources to uncover fraud in areas where companies were not obliged to report all financial activities. After the new policy, though, all crypto-related firms will need to make reports like banks.

Shlomit Wagman – Director at Israel’s Money Laundering and Terror Financing Prohibition Authority (IMPA) – believes the initiative should benefit the country’s financial network.

The systematical employment of cryptocurrencies in criminal activities is expected to go to the lowest levels as terrorists and other bad actors will find it harder to hide behind counterfeit documents. The policy will also focus on criminals using digital assets when they commit crimes against humanity.

The new rules will also help small cryptocurrency enterprises to provide greater confidence in the safety of their services as the reporting promises to be more accessible and modernized.

Additionally, certain transactions over NIS 50,000 will always require a series of reports. In countries considered high risk for terror financing, even transactions over NIS 5,000 will require reporting.

Wagman noted that a third of the nations across the globe have already imposed similar policies and Israel should not fall behind.

“The application of the regulations constitutes real progress for the Israeli economy, the Fintech industry and for improving financial competition” to provide the public better services,” she concluded.

Did Crypto Empowered Hamas?

Israel has launched numerous actions throughout the last months to stop the employment of digital currencies in illicit activities.

For example, in July this year, Israel’s National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing ordered the confiscation of 84 crypto addresses considered to be linked with the Palestinian militant group – Hamas. The sources revealed that the wallets contained more than $7.7 million in digital currencies.

Per the seizure order, it became clear that Tether (USDT) was the most preferred asset by the terrorist organization. Others included Bitcoin(BTC), Tron(TRX), Ether (ETH), and even the “meme coin” Dogecoin (DOGE).

This article was first published on: Nov 16, 2021