A news website for the terrorist organization group, ISIS known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has adopted Monero donations after having taken donations in Bitcoin for three years.
As reported by Blockchain intelligence company, Whitestream reported that a news website affiliated with the terrorist organization and the jihadist movement has updated its donations page on June 21 to only accept Monero.
Now it's official, #ISIS moved to @monero to raise funds from the public. With the awareness we created worldwide, and thanks to our global collaborations, we were able to push ISIS out of the Bitcoin Blockchain pic.twitter.com/7bDjSH5UTT — whitestream – Blockchain Intelligence (@whitestream5) June 25, 2020
Monero is a more secure method of payment that cannot be traced, according to the tutorial page published by the website,
The page then goes on to explain how users can buy and send Monero, while including the XMR address. Previously, the site accepted Bitcoin (BTC) donations since December 2017.
According to Whitestream, the organization consolidated the BTC it received into a single address which currently contains 0.295 BTC worth about $2,700.
The website posts news on the reported “successes” of the organization. Since its exile from Syria, Iraq and Libya has primarily been operating underground in Egypt’s Sinai region and in Northern Nigeria.
A recent report by Chainalysis exposed that cryptocurrencies play a significant role in terrorism financing.
Amid speculation of ISIS war chests hidden in Bitcoin, Chainalysis said that less than $10,000 were raised for terrorism through crypto. It is also unlikely that they used cryptocurrencies to store their oil sale proceeds.
Last year, ISIS also reportedly experimented with switching to blockchain-based communication apps.
Source: Cointelegraph | Image: Unsplash