Following news that Hamas had gathered millions in cryptocurrencies amid the rising Middle East conflict, Coinbase's senior legal officer urged the U.S. Congress to pass sound crypto laws. The CEO emphasized, "We need this industry to flourish in countries committed to the rule of law, not driven to places where human rights and public safety mean much less."
We Must Pass Sensible Crypto Legislation
As the conflict in the Middle East intensifies, Paul Grewal, the chief legal officer of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase (Nasdaq: COIN), has urged the US Congress to immediately approve sound crypto legislation.
Grewal expressed his opinion in a post on the social media site X on Wednesday, writing: "What's happening in and to Israel is horrible. No funds, whether they be in the form of fiat money, gold, cryptocurrency, or anything else, should EVER be used to support Hamas or any other group accountable [for the war]. The Coinbase CEO underlined the following in a subsequent article on X:
That's another reason why we need to pass proper crypto laws right away in the US. Instead of being pushed to locations where public safety and human rights are significantly less important, we need this business to grow in countries that uphold the rule of law.
Since the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) currently views all cryptocurrency tokens—aside from bitcoin—as securities, it has the authority to regulate cryptocurrency platforms. However, many claim that the SEC's guidelines for cryptocurrencies are unclear, and SEC Chairman Gary Gensler has chosen to oversee the sector mostly through litigation. The SEC has also lost multiple legal skirmishes with cryptocurrency companies including Ripple Labs and Grayscale Investments.
Grewal's declaration on Wednesday came in response to reports suggesting that over a two-year period, Hamas had collected over $41 million in cryptocurrency. According to the Israel Police, the militant group used Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange, to raise money. Tuesday saw the Israel Police announcing that they had frozen both a bank account at British bank Barclays and cryptocurrency accounts at Binance that were reportedly used by Hamas.
The chief legal officer of Coinbase continued by stating that his cryptocurrency exchange "has been laser-focused on rooting out bad actors seeking to use crypto for illicit purposes." We take every precaution to ensure that this doesn't occur on our platform, including KYC checks, sanctions screening, SAR reporting, robust law enforcement partnerships, and more, he continued.
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