Coin Center: Only 7,929 Bitcoins Were Used to Financing Terrorism in Two Years

Coin Center CEO Jerry Brito said that since the US Congress has begun investigating the relationship between cryptocurrencies and terrorism, it is time for them to make some assessment data public.

No need to worry about censorship

Brito pointed to the preliminary findings of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) and called them "largely positive," saying the community should learn to stop fearing regulatory scrutiny.

Congress may soon begin evaluating the connection between terrorism and virtual currencies, according to new news, which has the cryptocurrency community worried, but they don’t have to be.

No one wants to see cryptocurrency networks used for terrorist financing, so efforts to evaluate how they are used and how to prevent such incidents from happening again should be supported.

Congress made the announcement as Bitcoin continued to dominate headlines due to a global ransomware attack.

No substantial evidence

At the same time, CNAS distinguished between the use of Bitcoin in terrorism and relatively innocuous cyber attacks.

Currently…there is no substantive evidence that terrorist organizations use virtual currencies to sustain their operations.

Brito highlighted this statement in the report, which he called "very important."

He continued:

…There should be a time to respond reasonably to this possibility.

CNAS confirmed that although there are many options available to organized terrorists and even individuals, their financial transactions still use the "traditional financial system."

The report states:

They find that (the traditional financial system) remains a viable way to circumvent global rules that allow them to manage terrorist financing, so the use of virtual currencies (VCs) is completely unnecessary.

They identified gaps in the deployment of regulatory rules in the banking system and inconsistencies in global standards, the use of unregulated money service providers (MSBs) that are not approved by the government, or direct cash transactions.

A timeline in the CNAS report shows that between 2015 and 2017, only 7.929个bitcoins were involved in terrorist financing.

According to one commentator, this amount is even less than the cost of CNAS publishing the report.

No new discoveries

As for the next move of the regulatory authorities, Brito believes that the congressional research will eventually reach the same conclusion as CNAS. This will promote financial innovation without bringing "compliance pressure".

The report mentioned:

What financial decision makers should consider is how to actively promote the development of financial technology, especially when virtual currencies and new payment technology platforms can be successfully included in the scope of financial supervision.

The international community has been divided over the true relationship between cryptocurrencies and terrorists.

The European Union (EU), a regulatory body established for the purpose of combating terrorism, has been controversial over its plans to record information about cryptocurrency wallets and their users in a database.