Blockchain Hate Symbols Used to Flag Crypto Fundraising by Neo-Nazis

Research team Elliptic analyzed hate symbols in the Bitcoin blockchain to uncover new cryptocurrency wallets linked to white supremacists and neo-Nazis. Users of Elliptic’s solutions can now review wallets and transactions for links to this activity.

Over the past decade, far-right extremist groups have increasingly exploited the Internet to build a following, raise funds, and incite real-world violence. The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) has identified 91 deaths linked to 267 incidents of right-wing terrorism since 2015 in the United States alone. In response, tech companies have begun to “deplatform” organizations and individuals that promote far-right ideologies. In particular, payment companies such as PayPal, Visa and Mastercard are now blocking payments to some of these groups.

Faced with exclusion from the mainstream financial system, extremists have instead turned to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, which have no central authority that can censor transactions. Neo-Nazi news outlets, white supremacist blogs, and far-right video sharing platforms have accepted cryptocurrency payments. Elliptic’s analysis identified at least $8.9 million in cryptocurrency payments to wallets linked to extreme extremism.

Elliptic’s research and data collection teams continuously investigate and identify cryptocurrency wallets used by these extremist groups. This information is fed into our wallet and transaction verification software, which is used by cryptocurrency companies and financial institutions to identify far-right-related activity.

A screenshot from an extremist website, with instructions for sending a Bitcoin donation.

Our researchers use a variety of techniques to identify cryptocurrency wallets linked to far-right extremists, ranging from manual investigations to sophisticated machine learning models that identify distinctive patterns of transactions.

Recent internal research has focused on identifying payments to far-right groups based on “hate symbols” embedded in the blockchain.

Visual symbols of hatred such as the swastika are well-known neo-Nazi signifiers, but numbers are also used to identify and signal connections to these groups. For example, the number “88” is used by many far-right extremists to represent the phrase “Heil Hitler”, since H is the eighth letter of the alphabet. The number “14” is a numerical abbreviation for the slogan of the white race known as “14 words”. These numbers are commonly combined, with “1488” acting as a key symbol of neo-Nazi and white supremacist ideology.

Researchers like John Bambanek have previously identified Bitcoin payments to known far-right organizations and individuals for amounts that included the numbers “1488”.

Our researchers have found further evidence that this neo-Nazi symbol is a clear indicator of far-right activity on the Bitcoin blockchain. In the case of one extremist wallet, 47% of all payments received were for amounts containing “1488”. This is 30,000 times more than has been seen for active cryptocurrency wallets with no known far-right connections.

Blockchain records Bitcoin transactions to known far-right extremist groups.

After confirming that the inclusion of hate symbols in blockchain transactions was a clear signal of far-right activity, we were able to use this insight to identify wallets not previously known to be associated with this activity. By searching the entire blockchain, we were able to identify wallets that received a statistically significant number of transactions that contained the numbers “1488”, as well as other numbers recognized as hate symbols. This allowed us to identify several hundred new addresses associated with far-right extremists.

This research shows once again that the transparency of cryptoassets can be used to identify high-risk activity – in a way that is not possible in traditional payment systems. These insights have already made their way into Elliptic’s products and enable crypto exchanges, banks and payment companies to identify customer activity linked to a range of extremist groups.

Learn more about how Elliptic’s blockchain analytics solutions help crypto businesses and financial institutions manage their cryptoasset risk.