Virtual Money, Hateful Reality: The Cryptocurrency Exchanges Enabling Extremist Fundraising in 2023

Executive Summary

• In 2023, the ADL Center on Extremism (COE) tracked 15 white supremacist and antisemitic groups and individuals, as well as their donors, that collectively moved $142,546 worth of cryptocurrency to and/or from 22 different cryptocurrency service providers, including mainstream companies like Binance and Coinbase. This sample was limited to direct Bitcoin transactions between extremists and VASPs (Virtual Asset Service Providers).
• Of the exchanges examined, Kraken processed the most extremist money, with nearly $80,000 for white supremacists, neo-Nazis and antisemites.
• Within our sample, prominent white nationalist publisher Counter-Currents relied most heavily on cryptocurrency, carrying out more than $61,800 worth of cryptocurrency transactions with mainstream service providers in 2023, the most of any extremist group or individual in our sample. Funds tracked in this report likely fueled extremist activity such as legal defense fees for extremist-related crimes.
• As of December 1, 2023, only one of the cryptocurrency exchanges examined in this study had any policies prohibiting the funding of hate or extremism. Several VASPs in this report have policies that prohibit violent, hateful or racist content on their platform, but do not clearly extend this prohibition to off-platform activities or the funding of such activities.
• This report, which examines the activity of 15 white supremacist, neo-Nazi and antisemitic groups and individuals, is a preliminary assessment of a complex and sprawling ecosystem. We are considering approaches that will yield a broader overview of the entire extremism-VASP landscape.
• Our sample reflects the broader landscape of extremist cryptocurrency use, which is dominated by right-wing extremists. The sample was selected based on extremists’ relevance to the current extremist landscape, focusing on groups that have significant influence or pose the greatest threats to public safety.
• Cryptocurrency exchanges should engage with both civil society groups and public sector partners to produce informed, transparent policies that counter the financing of hate and extremism.
• Regulatory and government agencies should take action and encourage private sector partners to counter the financing of hate and extremism by engaging in partnerships and providing guidance on the current threat landscape.

Introduction

Extremist fundraising is a game of cat and mouse; as soon as extremists are banned by responsible financial platforms, they search for new service provider and ways to collect funds. Cyptocurrency has emerged as a safe haven and attractive option due to its perceived resilience to deplatforming, its pseudonymous nature and its separation from the “Jewish-controlled” financial system.

According to an analysis by the ADL Center on Extremism (COE), some extremists and their donors are funneling thousands of dollars through cryptocurrency exchanges and mainstream financial platforms. Funders of extremism are sending cryptocurrency to white supremacist groups like the Goyim Defense League, NSC-131 and the National Socialist Movement, as well as online extremist propaganda outlets like Counter-Currents and Radio Albion. Extremists appear to be using these services to move funds as well. Using cryptocurrency exchanges and payment apps that convert cryptocurrency to regular currency, extremists and their supporters can use bank accounts and credit cards to purchase cryptocurrencies and send them to hateful actors. These actors can then convert the cryptocurrency they receive back to regular currency, depositing it in their bank accounts for use in conventional marketplaces.

These cryptocurrency companies, also known as virtual asset service providers (VASPs), play a key role in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, making it accessible to anybody with a bank account or credit card. As an access point to the blockchain, VASPs can moderate who is using their services. They can see who is using their service, where cryptocurrency is going and where cryptocurrency deposits originate from.

Extremists have increasingly turned to cryptocurrency due to the mistaken belief that the technology offers anonymity and is impervious to deplatforming. Neither of these assumptions are accurate, but extremists have benefited from the lenient practices of cryptocurrency platforms, which often allow extremists to use their services. Stricter oversight and the adoption of anti-extremism policies by cryptocurrency platforms could make it much more difficult for extremists to exploit them.

Findings

The Center on Extremism found that 15 white supremacist and antisemitic groups and individuals, as well as their supporters, made $142,546 worth of cryptocurrency transactions in 2023 using 22 cryptocurrency providers, including mainstream companies like Binance and Coinbase. Of the exchanges examined, Kraken processed the most extremist money with a total of $79,548.76. Of the extremist entities, prominent white nationalist publisher Counter-Currents processed the most money, with $61,843.39 in cryptocurrency transactions. As of December 1, 2023, none of the VASPs in this report had any counter-extremism policies. Some service providers did have anti-hate content policies, but only one of them had policies prohibiting the financial facilitation of hatred or extremism.  

What is Cryptocurrency?

Cryptocurrencies are a decentralized form of digital currency, where all transactions are recorded on a publicly accessible ledger known as a blockchain. This technology has gained a measure of popularity as a method for transferring digital funds, with billions of dollars transferred annually (though far less than more conventional forms of electronic funds). Cryptocurrencies are also commonly used for speculative purposes, as people buy a particular cryptocurrency in the hopes that its value will go up. Bitcoin is the most popular and best-known cryptocurrency.

Users send cryptocurrency to each other using what’s called a wallet address, akin to how bank customers can send funds back and forth using account and routing numbers. Unlike the banking system, private individuals have the option to receive a wallet address from private wallet software and are not required to go through conventional financial institutions. However, one can use a VASP to convert cryptocurrency that’s in a wallet to conventional funds, which can then be placed in a bank account.

Methodology

The ADL Center on Extremism (COE) monitors a range of extremist groups and individuals that use cryptocurrency. We have recorded thousands of cryptocurrency wallet addresses used by hundreds of entities. The sample in this report is a preliminary assessment of a complex and sprawling ecosystem and is comprised entirely of right-wing extremists because this is the population that dominates the extremist cryptocurrency space. Left-wing extremists still mostly use traditional funding methods, like payment apps and credit card processors.

We further narrowed our sample to include only direct Bitcoin transactions between extremists and VASPs. Connections that involve more than one transaction (a chain), were not included in this report because it is not feasible to verify that funds did not change hands more than once in a transaction chain. The 15 entities examined in this report were chosen because they pose threats to the public, are influential in the current extremist landscape -- or because they moved significant sums of money through mainstream cryptocurrency VASPs.

To de-anonymize blockchain transactions, we linked digital wallets together, followed funds through different addresses and tracked the publicly available financial activities of extremists. Using cryptocurrency analysis software, we determined what VASPs are being used by extremists and their donors. We analyzed 451 transactions, 223 of which were with known service providers. The remaining transactions were performed with private parties or could not be reliably tied to a service provider or other entity. Dollar figures in this report were calculated by converting cryptocurrency to dollars at historical exchange rates, backdated to the time of the transaction.

The network visualization presented at the beginning of this report illustrates the flow of funds between extremists and cryptocurrency exchanges. Lines connecting points show that an extremist entity has put money into or received money from an exchange. The size of each point represents the volume of funds that has gone through an exchange or extremist entity. Interpretation of the network should be restricted to immediate, direct, connections, and it is not meant to show a larger, network-wide web of connections or relationships. Understanding this limitation is crucial for the correct interpretation of the network graph. These links are based on verifiable transaction data, rather than assumed relationships across a wider extremist funding network.

Key Extremist Users of Cryptocurrency in 2023

Goyim Defense League and Jon Minadeo

• Led by Jon Minadeo, the Goyim Defense League (GDL) is a loose network of individuals connected by their virulent antisemitism.
• The group livestreams outside synagogues and other Jewish institutions, harassing Jews and screaming obscenities and slurs at pedestrians and motorists. They also harassed children and minorities on the now-defunct online video chat site Omegle. The group uses these incidents to raise money.
• In 2023 alone, GDL has been tied to more than 275 antisemitic fliering incidents in 35 states. In 2022, they engaged in a multi-state antisemitic campaign meant to capitalize on Ye’s (formerly known as Kanye West) antisemitic rhetoric, dropping banners in California, New York and Florida and using a laser projector in Florida to spread their antisemitic vitriol. In 2021, GDL took part in a “Weekend of Hate” alongside another white supremacist group, distributing propaganda and hanging banners in multiple states over a two-day period.

The National Socialist Movement and Burt Colucci

• The National Socialist Movement (NSM) is a Florida-based neo-Nazi group led by Burt Colucci.
• The group is known for holding public rallies and protests dressed in Nazi-style uniforms.
• In 2022, three NSM members were charged for assaulting a Jewish man at a demonstration.

Counter-Currents and Greg Johnson

• Counter-Currents is a white nationalist website and publishing house founded in 2010 by American white supremacist Greg Johnson.
• Johnson, who was arrested and deported from Norway in 2019, advocates for a white ethnostate and regularly speaks at white nationalist conferences in Europe.
• The website openly promotes white supremacist ideology, explicitly stating that it “analyzes politics and culture from a pro-white perspective.”

American Renaissance and Jared Taylor

• American Renaissance is an online white supremacist journal published by the New Century Foundation, which was founded by white supremacist Jared Taylor in 1994.
• American Renaissance publishes racist content intended to demonstrate the intellectual and cultural “superiority” of white people.
• The publication extends its influence beyond the digital realm, regularly hosting white supremacist conferences that attract participants from around the world.

Daniel Kenneth Jeffries aka Grandpa Lampshade

• Daniel Kenneth Jeffries (also known by his internet alias Grandpa Lampshade) is a neo-Nazi podcaster from Granbury, Texas. He hosts two radio shows, “Parish of the Patriots” and “The Daily Nationalist,” on the white supremacist website Radio Albion.
• On “The Daily Nationalist,” Jeffries has promoted the Great Replacement theory and espouses a wide variety of vitriolic racist talking points suggesting that People of Color have low IQs and are inherently criminal.
• Mass shooter Robert Bowers shared several of Jeffries’s posts on Gab in the days leading up to his deadly rampage at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue in 2018.

NSC-131 and Christopher Hood

• Also known as Nationalist Social Club, NSC-131 is a New England-based neo-Nazi group.
• Members espouse racism, antisemitism, anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry, and intolerance both digitally and in person through graffiti, flash demonstrations, counter-protests and by disrupting local in-person events.
• Several members of NSC-131 have criminal histories related to their hateful activities. Most recently on December 13, 2023, the New Hampshire Attorney General filed civil charges against several members of the group for violating the state’s anti-discrimination law when they attempted to disrupt a drag queen event in Concord. Also in 2022, police arrested two members of the group for refusing to identify themselves to police while hanging propaganda. They each pleaded no contest. In 2020, law enforcement arrested eight members of the group for disorderly conduct after they allegedly attempted to agitate Black Lives Matter protesters into violence. Some cases were dismissed with a fine, but others’ dispositions are unclear. after they allegedly attempted to agitate Black Lives Matter protesters into violence. Some cases were dismissed with a fine, but others’ dispositions are unclear.

^{Jon Minadeo of the Goyim Defense League poses with members and associates of the Nationalist Social Club – Telegram July 2022}

Radio Albion

• Radio Albion (formerly Radio Aryan) is a white supremacist propaganda network that produces and distributes racist and antisemitic content.
• Radio Albion describes itself as being “created by and is intended for, Nationalists who are European through their ethnicity or ancestry.”
• The propaganda network was started by James Allchurch (aka Sven Longshanks), who produced much of the original content before being sentenced to two and half years in jail in the United Kingdom for distributing racist and antisemitic content through the website (the UK has more comprehensive hate speech laws than the United States).

Restoring Order and Patrick Casey

• Patrick Casey is a white supremacist who runs Restoring Order, a propaganda outlet that pushes white supremacist ideology via blogs, podcasts and regularly scheduled livestreams.
• Casey led the now defunct white supremacist group American Identity Movement and has at times been a lead member of the Groyper movement.
• In a video titled “The Consequences of Diversity,” which Casey published on his Odysee channel, he suggests that “diversity is code for anti-white” and pushes white supremacist talking points.

Richard Houck

• Richard Houck is an antisemite and white supremacist who writes for Counter-Currents, an online white supremacist magazine.
• While Houck is a writer for Counter-Currents, his cryptocurrency activity and wallet is distinct and separate from that of the magazine, and his activity is noted individually throughout this report.
• In one antisemitic article, “The Hierarchy of Culture,” Houck claims that Jews are the “orchestrators” of “anti-culture” which he defines as “a force that destroys civilization and beauty.”
• In another racist article that attempts to intrinsically tie people of color to crime, Houck claims that “Black teenagers stealing cars in cities across the United States made [his] insurance jump 30%.”

Christogenea and William Finck

• Christogenea is a prominent Christian Identity website, blog and YouTube channel operated by William Finck. Christian Identity is a white supremacist religious sect centered on the belief that people of white European descent are the Israelites mentioned in the Bible.
• Finck is a Florida-based Christian Identity preacher who is also a member of the League of the South, a neo-Confederate white supremacist group.
• In one podcast and blog series, “The Protocol of Satan,” Finck espouses virulent antisemitism by “establishing the credibility of [The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion]” and claiming that the notorious antisemitic forgery outlines a “long-running Jewish conspiracy against Aryans, against Christendom.”

Gab and Andrew Torba

• Gab is an online hub for extremist and conspiratorial content founded in 2016 by antisemite Andrew Torba.
• Torba has positioned the platform as a “free speech” alternative to X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and other popular social media websites.
• Due to lax content moderation, Gab is used by conspiracy theorists, white supremacists, neo-Nazis, members of the militia movement and other far-right influencers.

Stormfront and Don Black

• Stormfront, the oldest and at one point one of the largest white supremacist websites, was created in 1995 by white supremacist Don Black.
• Stormfront’s homepage describes the website and its members as “white nationalists” and declares itself “the voice of the new, embattled white minority.”
• Don Black is a former Ku Klux Klan leader. In 1981 he was arrested by the FBI in connection with a plot to overthrow the government of the tiny Caribbean island of Dominica. Black received a three-year prison sentence for Neutrality Act violations.

Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) with Significant Extremist Use in 2023

Kraken

• Kraken was founded in 2011 by Jesse Powell, Thanh Luu and Michael Gronager.
• As of December 2023, Kraken does not have any anti-hate, anti-extremism or anti-incitement of violence policies in its terms and conditions.
• A 2022 investigation by the New York Times revealed that Kraken’s then-CEO Jesse Powell circulated a “culture document” to employees stating, “We Don’t Forbid Offensiveness.” The document instructed them to refrain from labeling comments as “toxic, hateful, racist, x-phobic, unhelpful, etc.” and to “avoid censoring others.” Powell also said, “you may need to regularly consider these crypto and libertarian values when making work decisions.”

Binance

• Binance was founded in China in 2017 by Changpeng Zhao (CZ) and Yi He. They established Binance.US, a separate legal entity under the Binance corporate umbrella, for American customers in 2019.
• Binance claims to be the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, with $65B USD average daily trading volume.
• As of December 2023, Binance does not have any anti-hate, anti-extremism or anti-incitement of violence policies in its terms and conditions.

Coinbase

• Coinbase was founded in the United States in 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam.
• Coinbase reportedly generated $3.19B in revenue in 2022.
• Coinbase’s policies prohibit abusive activity towards other users, but there are no specific anti-hate, anti-extremism or anti-incitement of violence policies. However, Coinbase’s Non-Fungible Token (NFT) policy does prohibit calls to violence. NFTs are unique digital tokens like images and other digital files that are stored on the blockchain.

Gemini

• Gemini was founded in the United States by Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss in 2014.
• According to CoinMarketCap, Gemini holds over $4.1 billion in cryptocurrency, and their twenty-four-hour trading volume as of writing was around $30 million.
• Gemini’s European user agreements prohibit “material which incites violence, hatred, racism or which is considered obscene.” This language is not in its U.S. user agreements.

CashApp

• CashApp, which is owned by Block (formerly known as Square), started in 2013 as a peer-to-peer money moving service and moved into the cryptocurrency space in 2018.
• CashApp’s “Uploaded Content Policy” prohibits hateful, abusive or inflammatory content. CashApp also prohibits “hate speech directed toward other Cash App customers or Cash App employees.”
• It is unclear if these policies apply to the financial support of such activities.

CoinEx.com

• CoinEx.com is a Hong Kong based cryptocurrency exchange founded in December 2017.
• CoinEx.com claims it has a $3.8 billion 30-day trading volume at the time of writing.
• As of December 2023, CoinEx does not have any anti-hate, anti-extremism or anti-incitement of violence policies in its terms and conditions.

BitPay

• BitPay was founded in 2011 and originally headquartered in Florida. The company has since moved to Atlanta, Georgia, and is currently headed by CEO Stephen Pair.
• BitPay claims to have processed 383,517 transactions in the last six months as of October 17, 2023.
• BitPay’s policies prohibit the incitement, facilitation, promotion or encouragement of “hateful or violent acts against others.”

Analysis

Many of the key extremists listed above received funds from or sent funds to the above VASPs throughout 2023. Below are case studies of notable interactions, highlighted because they clearly demonstrate how extremists are exploiting cryptocurrency companies’ lack of explicit anti-hate policies and content moderation.

Kraken

Eight of the 15 extremists tracked in this study either appear to be using Kraken themselves or have their supporters use it to send them money. With $79,548.76 in extremist funds connected to Kraken, the VASP is the top facilitator of extremist funding within our dataset, accounting for 55.8% of extremist funds. Counter-Currents accounts for about 77% of this number; the remaining 23% comes smaller deposits made by seven other groups in this study, the most notable of which are the National Socialist Movement and GDL.

• Counter-Currents and Greg Johnson
  • In just two transactions, one on June 4 and the other on August 17, Counter-Currents transferred $61,385.59 to Kraken.
  • The funds originated from a variety of private wallets and users on other cryptocurrency exchanges.
  • Counter-Currents solicits cryptocurrency donations on their website and said in 2022 these donations went toward site maintenance, paying staff salaries and in person white supremacist gatherings. It is likely these funds will go towards similar efforts in 2023.

• The National Socialist Movement and Burt Colucci
  • In 2023, the National Socialist Movement’s private wallet received $504.95 from users on Kraken. The extremist group also sent $1,734.10 they received from a variety of sources to the service.
  • Transaction patterns suggest that the National Socialist Movement has an account on Kraken.
  • The group's Bitcoin wallet has received a total of 21 deposits this year, amounting to $1,718.34. These deposits originated from a combination of private wallets and accounts at VASPs.
  • The NSM solicits cryptocurrency donations on their website to support the group’s activities, website maintenance and legal expenses for their leader Burt Colucci and two other members after they were charged with assaulting a Jewish man.

^{The National Socialist Movement solicits cryptocurrency donations with a swastika embedded in their appeal.}

Coinbase

Ten of the 15 extremists in this study either used Coinbase themselves or received funds from supporters using the service. This is despite the explicit moderation guidelines mentioned in the preceding section. Extremists’ supporters sent $5,333.44 in cryptocurrency from Coinbase to extremist groups like NSC-131 and propaganda outlets like Radio Albion. Extremists themselves sent $5,178.08 to the service, totaling $10,511.52 in 2023.

• Grandpa Lampshade aka Daniel Kenneth Jeffries
  • Daniel Kenneth Jeffries and his supporters appear to be using Coinbase.
  • Jeffries’s supporters have apparently used Coinbase to send him $2,529.65 worth of Bitcoin, and Jeffries appears to have funneled $3,243.67 of his own to the service.
  • Transaction analysis shows that Jeffries consistently sent funds to Coinbase shortly after receiving them from supporters, a pattern which he repeated ten times in 2023. This suggests that he has an account at Coinbase.
  • Jeffries solicits funds during his podcasts, asking listeners to support the show.

• NSC-131 and Christopher Hood
  • This neo-Nazi group has received $184.81 through Coinbase.
  • NSC-131 began soliciting donations to a Bitcoin wallet in early 2023 to raise money for the legal defense of two members charged with civil rights violations by the New Hampshire Department of Justice (the charges have since been dismissed).
  • Although the funds were ostensibly allocated to legal expenses, as of December 2023, the Bitcoin has not yet been converted to traditional currency. Any funds not used to cover legal expenses for a previously resolved legal dispute could be redirected towards supporting the group's on-the-ground activities.
• Radio Albion
  • Radio Albion has sent $1,934.40 worth of Bitcoin to Coinbase and has received $75.04 from users on the platform. This means Radio Albion has been involved in over $2,000 worth of transactions with Coinbase.
  • Radio Albion lists their cryptocurrency addresses in the descriptions of all their podcasts and publications.
  • Notably, Radio Albion instructs donors to take steps to increase the privacy of their donations. In addition to encouraging donors to use the cryptocurrency Monero, (a privacy focused cryptocurrency that is difficult to trace), they also suggest that Bitcoin donors not donate to the extremist outlet directly from a cryptocurrency exchange. Instead, they suggest that donors withdraw funds from their preferred exchange to an intermediary wallet and send the money to Radio Albion from there. This obscures the intended recipient and circumvents any bans on extremists that might be implemented by cryptocurrency platforms.
  • Transaction patterns indicate that the controller of the Radio Albion Bitcoin wallet may be using Coinbase to cash out their funds.

Gemini

Three extremist entities, Stormfront, the Goyim Defense League and Patrick Casey all either received money from or sent money to Gemini, bringing the exchange’s extremist-related transactions up to $15,931.51. Ninety-nine percent of this total was connected to Patrick Casey.

• Restoring Order and Patrick Casey
  • Patrick Casey has sent $15,846.98 to Gemini.
  • Casey prominently displays cryptocurrency addresses in his profile on livestreaming website DLive, where he streams to his 14,000-plus followers.

CashApp

Six extremists in our sample interacted with CashApp in 2023. Extremists sent $4,146.83 to the service, and they received $5,352.65 from supporters using it.

• Goyim Defense League and Jon Minadeo
  •  In 2023, supporters of the Goyim Defense League (GDL) utilized CashApp to send a total of $3,114.19 to the extremist group, while GDL sent $2,148.41 to CashApp.
  • GDL accepts cryptocurrency donations during their livestreams. They also accept it as payment in their webstore.
  • GDL promotes CashApp as an easy way for supporters to purchase and send them Bitcoin.

^{GDL’s wide supporter base uses a variety of cryptocurrency exchanges to send funds to the extremist group, but GDL appears to be using the VASPs CashApp and Purse.io to move their funds.}

• Richard Houck
  • Richard Houck received a total of $2,003.19 from at least one user on CashApp in two separate donations. Subsequently, Houck transferred these funds from his private wallet back to CashApp.
  • Historically, Houck has solicited cryptocurrency donations on his SubscribeStar page and at one point his YouTube channel.

CoinEx.com

CoinEx has facilitated financing for one extremist on our list, William Finck, who runs the Christian Identity website Christogenea, for a total of $9,994.89.

• Christogenea and William Finck
  • During just one transaction in April 2023, a user on CoinEx sent William Finck’s Christogenea $9,994.89. Finck then sent these funds to Kraken.
  • Christogenea asks readers to support their “research, writing, translations, Bible commentaries and other works of William Finck” and they also claim to support other extremist endeavors including “the Mein Kampf Project, Saxon Messenger and other sites.”
  • According to information available on the Christogenea website, donations cover 98% of the outlet's expenses.

BitPay

• Stormfront and Don Black
  • Stormfront funneled $3,241.42 through BitPay in 2023.
  • Stormfront also received $678.58 worth of Bitcoin from supporters at other exchanges in this sample.
  • Stormfront's homepage prominently displays a link for donations, citing Bitcoin as the “preferred payment method.”

Conclusion

These hateful actors and their supporters are continuing their game of cat and mouse. Extremists and their supporters are exploiting VASPs to financially support their bigotry. As VASPs act responsibly to remove extremists from their platforms, extremists will develop new techniques to evade bans and find new ways and new platforms to raise and move funds. Continued vigilance in the cryptocurrency space, as well as other financial technology spaces, and responsible moderation by the underlying platforms, are needed to combat the financial elements of this rise in antisemitism, extremism and hate.

Policy Recommendations

For government

• Push regulators (Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)) to promote greater transparency by urging crypto exchanges to ban or delist privacy coins, specifically those that use temporary keys or divided transactions that make them difficult to trace.
• Push the Treasury Department to ensure globalization standards include greater global oversight of virtual currencies, with new reporting practices that publicize and track digital asset flows.
  • Updates on EU and U.S. crypto regulation was a part of the most recent EU-U.S. Financial Regulatory Forum held at the beginning of this month by Treasury. As you know, the EU is ahead of the U.S. and is implementing rules that would require crypto exchanges to have a license to operate in their domain, within the licensing requirements it pushes for greater transparency and access to crackdown on the use of crypto for illicit finance operations like money laundering or funding other illegal activity. As we know, the U.S. has struggled to implement any new regulation, but putting down a marker early on this could hopefully lead to inclusion in any final regulations Congress or the Administration pushes through.
• The U.S. Government should engage and build concrete partnerships with private sector partners to gain insight into cryptocurrency transactions (through blockchain-based forensics, data analysis and information sharing and other means) on domestic violent extremism.
• The Treasury Department should update its domestic violent extremism handbook to include explicate guidance and recommendations for cryptocurrency companies
• The SEC should provide an overview of what trust and safety safeguards are put in place over crypto exchanges related to domestic violent extremism.
• The Treasury Department should provide background to the public on how they are tracking the use of these exchanges by hate and extremist inspired individuals and what efforts are being put in place to limit extremists from utilizing crypto exchanges for financing.

For platforms

• While many of these cryptocurrency companies have policies that prohibit the use of their exchanges to fund terrorism-related activities, and some even prohibit hateful activities, none of them have explicit counter-extremism policies and only one prohibits the funding of real-world hateful or extremist activities.  ADL would recommend that all VASPs update their policies to explicitly prohibit the use of their cryptocurrency exchanges to fund hate and extremism-related activities.
• Virtual Asset Service Providers should apply these newly formed policies in their Know Your Customer (KYC) and Know Your Transaction (KYT) practices, weighing association with extremism to disrupt outgoing transactions to extremists.
• None of these cryptocurrency companies currently produce voluntary transparency reports, allowing the public and relevant stakeholders in civil society and government to understand how they are implementing their policies. ADL would recommend that they produce voluntary transparency reports to allow these stakeholders to better understand the scope of the problems on their platforms and the nature of their efforts to deal with them.
• ADL recommends cryptocurrency companies engage and build partnerships with both civil society groups and federal partners (HSI, ICE and IRS) to leverage their established programs and resources related to tracking illicit actors’ use of cryptocurrency.
• ADL recommends cryptocurrency companies request threat training through subject matter experts at both civil society groups as well as those located at a local FBI or Homeland Security Investigations Field Offices, Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) or fusion centers.

Donor Acknowledgements

Anonymous(3)
The ADL Lewy Family Institute for Combatting Antisemitism
Crown Family Philanthropies
Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation
Lillian and Larry Goodman Foundations
Mastercard Impact Fund
Morton H. Meyerson Family Foundation/Marlene Nathan Meyerson Family Foundation
PayPal
The Charles and Mildred Schnurmacher Foundation
The Nancy K. Silverman Foundation
Quadrivium Foundation
The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation