Wall Street Journal corrects article misciting Hamas' crypto terrorism funding data

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has partially corrected an article whic mischaracterized the extent to which Hamas and other militant groups have been funding its terrorism activities with cryptocurrencies.

The Oct. 10 article — titled “Hamas Militants Behind Israel Attack Raised Millions in Crypto” — cited blockchain forensics firm Elliptic to say Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), a terrorist organization operating on the Gaza Strip, raised as much as $93 million between August 2021 and June 2023.

In the cited report, Elliptic said Israel’s counter-terrorism unit seized PIJ-linked wallets which received $93 million from over that timeframe. However, Elliptic made it clear that this in

Coinbase’s chief legal officer Paul Grewal also noted that WSJ’s opening paragraph is still framed as though cryptocurrency was the primary funding source behind Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

2/ @WSJ‘s lede still maintains that the funding supported Hamas attacks hinged on “One answer: cryptocurrency.” There’s no evidence of that, and WSJ knows it. pic.twitter.com/BQK80b1jMd

— paulgrewal.eth (@iampaulgrewal) October 27, 2023

“This is barely a correction,” he added.

Nic Carter, partner of Castle Island Ventures and others are now calling on United States Senator Elizabeth Warren to retract a related letter backed by over 100 U.S. lawmakers written to the White House on Oct. 17.

The letter cited WSJ’s misinterpreted data from Elliptic in an attempt to argue that cryptocurrency poses a “national security threat” to the U.S. and that Congress and the Biden administration should act swiftly before cryptocurrencies are used to finance another “tragedy.”