U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced the Justice Department seized more than $560,000 in cryptocurrency intended for Hamas and dismantled the terror group's online fundraising network, a move that also exposed thousands of Americans who tried to fund the designated terrorist organization.
The FBI took control of servers and website domains tied to Hamas's military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, and used that access to intercept cryptocurrency donations flowing toward the group's operations. Federal investigators also obtained the identities of thousands of individuals who allegedly attempted to send money to Hamas through the compromised infrastructure, information the DOJ says it will use in ongoing counterterrorism efforts.
Pirro, serving as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, announced the operation Tuesday, framing it as one of the most significant disruptions of terrorist financing in recent years.
Federal court documents reveal the investigation unfolded across at least three specific dates, March 25, June 25, and October 10, 2025, when FBI investigators used information from multiple human sources to identify, trace, and ultimately seize approximately $560,000 in cryptocurrency earmarked for Hamas's military wing.
Investigators first identified an encrypted group chat that claimed affiliation with Hamas. That chat was steering the terror organization's supporters toward a fundraising website and a rotating set of cryptocurrency donation addresses, a common tactic used to evade detection. Once the FBI gained control of the online infrastructure, agents were able to intercept donations in real time.
The New York Post reported that the seized domains included AlQassam.ps, the main website of Hamas's military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades. The takedown extended to communication platforms the group used for both fundraising and recruitment.
Pirro did not hold back about the operation's scope or its message to Hamas:
"My office just struck a massive blow against foreign terrorism in seizing over $560,000 in crypto and dismantling Hamas' online recruitment by seizing their servers and their domains."
She added that agents had directly intercepted funds bound for the Al-Qassam Brigades' military operations, money that, absent the FBI's intervention, would have financed the same wing responsible for the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
Pirro, who has faced opposition from left-wing legal groups during her tenure, delivered a pointed warning in her public remarks:
"My message to Hamas is clear. Your networks are not secure, your crypto is vulnerable, and we will not stop until your ability to wage war is defeated for once and for all."
Perhaps the most consequential element of the operation is not the dollar figure, significant as it is, but the intelligence haul. By seizing Hamas's digital infrastructure, the FBI obtained the names and identities of thousands of individuals who allegedly tried to donate to the terrorist organization.
Pirro confirmed the scope of that exposure directly:
"We also now have the names and identities of thousands of individuals who tried to give money to Hamas that we were able to intercept."
The DOJ has not announced any arrests tied to those donors. Whether prosecutions will follow remains an open question. But the message is unmistakable: anyone who used Hamas's cryptocurrency channels to send money now has their identity in a federal counterterrorism file.
Just The News reported that the DOJ also shut down recruitment platforms Hamas used to radicalize supporters online. Assistant Attorney General John A. Eisenberg framed the seizures as cutting off resources Hamas depends on "to recruit and radicalize individuals online and finance barbaric attacks like the one on October 7, 2023."
That language from a senior DOJ official ties the operation explicitly to the deadliest single-day attack against Jewish civilians since the Holocaust, and to the broader concern that terrorist organizations have adapted their financing to exploit the relative anonymity of cryptocurrency.
The Hamas operation marks a significant law enforcement action for Pirro's office at a time when her role as D.C.'s top federal prosecutor has drawn both praise and scrutiny. Her office has pursued a range of high-profile matters, including a special grand jury probe into D.C. public schools over truancy and graduation records.
Pirro has also navigated controversy in other cases. She dropped a felony charge against an Olympic canoeist after the Interior Department withheld evidence, and she has faced personal threats serious enough to prompt a federal arrest, a Long Island man was charged with threatening to kill her.
Against that backdrop, the Hamas cryptocurrency seizure stands as exactly the kind of action the U.S. Attorney's office exists to carry out: identifying foreign terrorist financing networks operating inside American digital infrastructure and shutting them down.
Brett Leatherman, the FBI's Assistant Director for the Cyber Division, said the bureau would continue to "use its authorities to intercept illicit funds and prevent terrorist organizations from exploiting digital networks to finance their operations," Newsmax reported.
The operation highlights a growing reality in counterterrorism enforcement: designated terrorist organizations have moved aggressively into cryptocurrency precisely because it offers a degree of anonymity that traditional banking does not. Hamas's use of encrypted group chats, rotating donation addresses, and dedicated fundraising websites represents a sophisticated effort to exploit that gap.
The FBI's ability to penetrate that infrastructure, using human sources over the course of months, gaining control of servers, and intercepting funds in transit, suggests the bureau has built substantial capability in this space. The AP confirmed the scope of the operation, noting the seizure of both website domains and communication platforms alongside the cryptocurrency.
Several questions remain unanswered. The DOJ has not disclosed what specific type of cryptocurrency was seized, what charges or statutes are cited in the federal court filings, or why roughly ten months elapsed between the last documented investigative action in October 2025 and the public announcement in late August 2026. No arrests have been announced.
For the thousands of individuals whose identities now sit in a federal counterterrorism database, the silence on prosecutions may be temporary, or it may reflect a strategic choice to use that intelligence for broader investigations rather than immediate charges.
Either way, the DOJ just demonstrated that cryptocurrency is not the safe harbor terrorist financiers assumed it was. The people who thought they could fund Hamas from behind a screen now know the FBI was on the other end of the transaction.
