The House Financial Services Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Know-how & Inclusion convened the afternoon of Wednesday, November fifteenth, to discuss illicit activity in regards to cryptocurrency.
Dangerous actors
“We all know that dangerous actors prey on vulnerabilities wherever they’ll discover them,” stated Chairman House Financial Services Chairman Patrick McHenry (NC-10). “There’s a bipartisan settlement, although, that we should maintain these dangerous actors to account in each method potential and, particularly, relating to digital belongings and the digital asset ecosystem.”
The subcommittee assembly comes a bit of over a month after an October 7th attack by the militant group, Hamas, noticed 1200 Israelis killed.
In keeping with BitOK, a monetary audit firm primarily based out of Tel Aviv, Hamas acquired roughly $41 million in crypto wallets between August 2021 and June 2023.
Understanding the expertise
“Members on this room should higher perceive the diploma of illicit exercise, learn the way we are able to use Blockchain expertise to fight illicit exercise, look at the analytic instruments which can be presently obtainable to fight this exercise and discover gaps that will stop and detect illicit exercise,” stated Congressman French Hill (AR-02), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Know-how & Inclusion.
The subcommittee listening to follows one held yesterday by The Senate Committee on Banking, Houses, and Urban Affairs, addressing the necessity for regulatory oversight within the monetary sector. It comes amidst broader discussions for laws and regulation throughout the crypto trade.
Witnesses included Senior Counsel and Director of International Regulatory Issues at ConsenSys and former Affiliate Deputy Lawyer Basic on the Division of Justice, Invoice Hughes, former Trial Lawyer, and Human Trafficking Finance Specialist with the U.S. Division of Justice’s Cash Laundering and Asset Restoration Part and associate at Arktouros, Jane Khodarkovsky, and co-founder & Chief Technique Officer of Chainalysis, Jonathan Levin, amongst others.
Uncovering Hamas’ footprint
Members of the House Financial Services Committee proceeded to send a letter to President Biden and U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen amidst their “bipartisan fact-finding mission” to uncover the true extent of funding terrorist organizations like Hamas obtain by means of technique of illicit cryptocurrency.
“We request the White House and the Treasury to make the most of the open blockchain ledger to evaluate the footprint of Hamas’s digital asset fundraising marketing campaign,” said House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (MN-06). “In doing this, Congress can higher perceive the US’ obtainable instruments and capabilities to focus on dangerous actors on blockchain and support legitimate digital asset use and innovation.”
“It’s important that we maintain dangerous actors within the digital asset ecosystem accountable to ensure that legit gamers to thrive,” added Chairman McHenry.