The MEMRI Cyber & Jihad Lab’s (CJL’s) ongoing project monitoring jihadi fundraising efforts has seen an increase in ISIS’s use of cryptocurrency and solicitation of donations in these currencies. This is particularly true for Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISIS-K).
On April 2, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the sentencing of Humzah Mashkoor of Colorado after he pleaded guilty to “concealing the nature, source, or ownership of funds with the knowledge or intent that such funds would be provided to a foreign terrorist organization” – that is, ISIS. Mashkoor had planned to transfer funds to ISIS via cryptocurrency.
This week, on April 6, an ISIS-K media outlet posted a fundraising campaign by an ISIS-K media outlet, in the form of a poster in English and Russian asking donors not to use a Monero wallet address previously provided (see below). The poster gave another wallet address, and instructed donors to contact the outlet for the most updated wallet.
The outlet had previously posted, on April 1, a request to donors to contact it in order to send funds in cryptocurrency for jihad. This request in turn superseded instructions and a wallet address for donating in Monero that it had provided in a fundraising campaign poster disseminated by the outlet on February 25. That poster, titled “Jihad with Wealth in the Path of Allah,” stated: “Brothers who wish to support their Mujahid brothers in media or warfare campaigns and want to engage in Jihad with their wealth for the sake of Allah can contribute through crypto as much as they are able.” In the April 1 request, the outlet said not to send funds to that Monero wallet, writing: “Dear brothers, we do not have access to our Monero addresses. If a brother intends to send [alms], please contact us so we can send them new addresses, Allah willing.”
MEMRI Executive Director Steven Stalinsky noted: “In recent months, ISIS-K and other jihadist groups have moved aggressively to normalize cryptocurrency as a core funding tool. They have been openly soliciting crypto donations across social media and in their official propaganda, including magazines, saying explicitly that these contributions are to help purchase weapons and fund jihad operations. This is a significant development toward decentralized, anonymous terror financing tied directly to their digital outreach.”
