In January 15 hearing, the US House Financial Services Sub-Committee on National Security, International Development and Monetary Policy analyzed how the US financial institutions can fight hate crimes, domestic terrorism, and extremism.
The said hearing is in connection to the US House Financial Services’ concerns about the cryptocurrencies being used to finance domestic terrorism in the US. It mainly focused on how these domestic terrorists fund their attracts as a whole, and not particularly with Bitcoin (BTC).
According to NJ Homeland Security and Preparedness Director Maples, the domestic terrorists discovered value in masked movements and security of BTC and other cryptocurrencies.
Maples said, “they’re seeing the effectiveness of being able to mask those movements.”
“As cryptocurrency becomes more prevalent and the technology becomes easier to adopt and use, we do believe we’ll see more of that in the domestic terror realm,” he further said.
Being one of the five witnesses to address the issues in the hearing, Maples pointed out the US authorities need to look closely to the use of cryptocurrencies in financing acts of domestic extremism.
On his prepared remarks, Maples wrote, “we cannot discount the future use of cryptocurrencies as a means to fund acts of domestic extremism within New Jersey and across the United States.”
Maples noted that some foreign terrorist groups have utilized Facebook and Telegram for soliciting funds through BTC. He warned the US Congress not to ignore the industry being the source of hate crimes funds in the US. He also projected that these domestic extremists would keep on funding their activities through cryptocurrencies to sell counterfeit goods and drugs, and perform cigarette smuggling and weapon trafficking.
During the hearing, Maples also noted that there are some crypto businesses like Coinbase that impose sweeping the anti-hate policies. By doing so, the customers are prevented from transacting in such ways.
Anti-Defamation League Senior Vice President George Selim wrote in his testimony that, “cryptocurrencies are not a panacea for white supremacists’ money transfer difficulties.”
Meanwhile, Representative Juan Vargas asked Maples’ opinion on how governments can combat the cryptocurrency trend.
Maples answered, “we have to put stringent oversight in place.” He specified that it would include making sure that everyone is aware of the potential risks around cryptocurrencies, including the monitoring of the crypto movements.
As the US government continues to address all the potential terrorist funding ambiguity over the disturbing growth of hate crimes and domestic terrorism, experts claim that cryptocurrency is a poor money form for these terrorists.
If you’ll remember back in 2018, the US Congress concluded the terrorist organizations that attempted raising funds through cryptocurrencies fail to succeed.
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