U.S. Treasury Deputy Secretary Adewale O. Adeyemo has urged Congress to take action to provide the government with “necessary tools” to combat illicit finance tied to cryptocurrencies.
“For example, five years ago, al-Qaeda and affiliated terrorist groups, largely based out of Syria, operated a bitcoin money laundering network using social media platforms to solicit cryptocurrency donations,” he noted. With existing approaches to combating terrorist financing through the traditional financial system, the agency has effectively made it harder for terrorist groups to move money. However, “the more effective our targeting has been, the more reason there is for these terrorist groups to look into virtual assets,” Adeyemo said.
In December, a group of bipartisan U.S. senators introduced a bill that would broaden the Treasury’s sanctions powers to cover more terrorist groups including Hamas, and give them more resources to address crypto.Adeyemo noted that the Treasury sent proposals to the Committee in November in the hope of strengthening the government’s counter-terrorist financing authorities.