U.S. Congress and the Role of Crypto

On January 15, the House Financial Services Committee (FSC) discussed the issues connected with illegal activities. It is important to mention that the FSC subcommittee hearing was focused on how domestic terrorists finance their activities in general. In this context, U.S. lawmakers, along with witnesses also discussed the connection between crypto and unlawful activities.

The FSC subcommittee on National Security, International Development and Monetary Policy examined various ways to combat domestic terrorism, etc. The purpose of this hearing was to discuss how U.S. financial institutions can tackle those problems.

The officials and executives who attend this hearing stated that criminals often receive funding in cryptocurrencies.

Crypto and social media

One of the witnesses who attended the hearing is Jared Maples. He is the Director of the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness. According to Maples, U.S. authorities should pay more attention when it comes to using the crypto in funding acts of domestic extremism.

He also mentioned foreign terrorist organizations that used Telegram and Facebook to receive funding through Bitcoin. Moreover, he listed several incidents when organizations used cryptocurrency for such purposes.

Maples asked U.S. Congress members not to ignore the industry as it is a source of funding hate crimes in the U.S.

Another witness, Rena Miller, talked about extremist groups. She is a specialist in financial economics at the Congressional Research Service. Miller underlined that it is getting harder to combat the financing of extremist groups. The emergence of new technologies, such as crypto money, made it harder to tackle this problem.

George Selim senior vice president of programs at the Anti-Defamation League underlined that transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain are still transparent. It is possible to track the transactions even though it’s anonymous.

According to Selim, the U.S. should create regulations for crypto-related platforms. This way it would be possible to track online transactions.

The best solution is to prepare crypto regulations. It will be beneficial for both sides. Crypto-related companies will cooperate with authorities. Thus, it will become harder to use Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for hate crimes, terrorism, and other purposes.