U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis has defended crypto against claims that the asset class is heavily used in illicit finance. Emphasizing that “Crypto is not the problem, bad actors that exist in every industry are,” the lawmaker pointed out that crypto accounts for less than 1% of all illicit finance activity. In addition, she has urged Congress to create a regulatory framework to allow crypto firms to operate in the U.S. instead of driving them to “unregulated foreign markets.”
Lawmaker Says ‘Crypto Is Not the Problem’
U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) defended crypto in response to an article on Forbes about how misinformation on Hamas and crypto fooled nearly 20% of Congress.
“Crypto accounts for < 1% of all illicit finance activity and would be even less if we created a regulatory structure to allow the crypto industry to operate in America instead of unregulated foreign markets,” the senator from Wyoming wrote on social media platform X Friday. She stressed:
Crypto is not the problem, bad actors that exist in every industry are.
Recently, several news outlets reported that Hamas had raised millions of dollars in cryptocurrency. However, blockchain analytics firm Elliptic has debunked the reports, stating: “There is no evidence to suggest that crypto fundraising has raised anything close to this amount, and data provided by Elliptic and others has been misinterpreted.”
Despite Elliptic’s efforts to set the record straight, these reports prompted 100 U.S. lawmakers, including Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), to push the Biden administration to address crypto-financed terrorism.
This week, U.S. Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo said the Biden administration is seeking more tools to combat the illicit use of crypto. He emphasized that the attack on Israel has brought an “increased focus on the illicit financial use of digital assets.” Nonetheless, he admitted that crypto is not a major source of funding for terrorist groups.
In February, blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis published a report showing that “crime as a share of all crypto activity is still trending downwards.” Moreover, the firm stated:
Overall, illicit activity in cryptocurrency remains a small share of total volume at less than 1%.
What do you think about the statements by Senator Cynthia Lummis about crypto and illicit finance? Let us know in the comments section below.
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