Terrorists prefer cash to crypto, according to testimony before US Congress

Yaya Fanusie highlighted in her testimony that terrorists have tried, without much success, to make use of digital currencies. Cash, then, is still king to them.

In testimony prepared before the Committee on Financial Services of the US House of Representatives, Yaya Fanusie, director of analysis of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, explained that although terrorists have tried to raise funds through cryptocurrencies, the Cases are rare or nonexistent. In contrast, groups that seek to cause chaos prefer the oldest means: cash.

"The good news is that most terrorists, particularly those operating on jihadist battlefields, live in environments that currently do not favor the use of cryptocurrencies," Fanusie told the Subcommittee on Terrorism and Illicit Finance of the United States Congress. . "In general, they need to buy goods with cash (which is the most anonymous financing method), often in areas with an unreliable technological infrastructure. In addition, cryptocurrencies are based on the distributed ledger technology (Blockchain), where pseudonymous user transactions are recorded for public viewing. This leaves a trace that unsophisticated users may find difficult to hide. However, as the use of the digital currency grows, such barriers may disappear. "

This is not the first time that Fanusie disillusioned Congress with the assumption that decentralized digital money is a "force for evil." He worked for most of a decade at the CIA as a counterterrorism analyst. He routinely investigated the US Army, the White House policy and the application of the law. He even personally informed then-President George W. Bush about the threats since 2008.

"Cash is still king," Fanusie continued, "but jihadist groups are building diverse portfolios. Illicit actors adopt new technologies before the general public. When the printed checks, credit cards and Paypal came up, the criminals exploited them from the beginning. There are enough case studies of jihadist groups experimenting with cryptocurrencies to suggest that law enforcement and the intelligence community must prepare for terrorists to try to exploit digital chips as technology expands. "

Little blurred connection
The Cryptocurrency Committee has been fighting against the connections to terrorism presented by governments since the day politicians discovered that Bitcoin existed. The first combination of digital currencies and terrorism actually comes from a 2008 document in the Richmond Journal of Law and Technology in which the author claimed that "[terrorists] trying to avoid detection resorted to other transfer methods." In defining this last sentence, the report referred to a document entitled 'The Cybernetic Front in the War on Terrorism: Stopping the Terrorist Use of the Internet'. It was published in 2005. That's right, the terrorists who supposedly use digital coins are older than the Bitcoin itself. "

And the test for enthusiasts has always been: if in fact Bitcoin or some other cryptography was used during a terrorist act, such news would be on the front pages. That has not happened and it is revealing. Fanusie made it clear that apparently the terrorists are not using the crypts, but they could!

"Cryptocurrencies can become the way we conduct transactions in the future," concludes Fanusie. "But they are also becoming part of the illicit financing toolkit available to terrorists." The Center for Illicit Sanctions and Finance (CSIF) has documented cryptocurrency fundraising campaigns run by social media entities associated with the Islamic State and al-Qaeda. Although public evidence indicates that terrorist groups have so far had limited success with cryptocurrency fundraising efforts, the growing profile of digital currencies has been accompanied by jihadist networks that experiment with them more frequently.