“Bitcoin mining could have produced as much as $1 billion in revenue for Iran in 2021 alone.”
Washington, D.C. – Ahead of today’s Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) hearing, United States Senator Warren (D-Mass.) and Senator Angus King (I-Maine) are highlighting the national security threat from Iran’s use of crypto to avoid international sanctions. In a letter to U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, the senators request answers from the administration regarding its efforts to combat Iran’s use of cryptocurrency (crypto) mining to evade U.S. and international sanctions and fund terrorist organizations.
Iran is one of the world’s largest Bitcoin producers. In 2021, Iran was estimated to mine as much as seven percent of the global Bitcoin market, making it one of the top eight Bitcoin-producing countries in the world. Bitcoin mining funneled more than $186 million into Iranian crypto platforms, most of it in 2021. One estimate indicates that Iranian Bitcoin mining could have produced as much as $1 billion in revenue in 2021.
“Iran legalized the cryptomining industry in 2019. In the five years since, Iran has raised millions of dollars through mining crypto—a steady revenue source that allows it to purchase imports, move funds domestically and internationally, and fund Hamas and other terrorist organizations. This ongoing activity by the Iranian government threatens our national security,” wrote the lawmakers.
Beyond the revenue it earns through cryptomining, Iran’s use of crypto to launder funds is well known. Its largest crypto exchange, Nobitex, provides guidance on its website on avoiding sanctions. Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, processed $8 billion worth of Iranian crypto transactions in a four-year period, with most of the funds flowing through Nobitex. The Iranian government is also known to be affiliated with ransomware gangs that have perpetrated attacks against U.S. organizations.
Senator Warren is an outspoken advocate for regulation and oversight of crypto to rein in unchecked illegal activity, protect consumers, and the safety and stability of the financial system:
- In April 30, 2024, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Bill Cassidy (R-La.), and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) wrote to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) urging an assessment of the cybersecurity landscape leading up to, and after, the Change Healthcare cyberattack.
- In March 2024, at a hearing of SASC, Senator Elizabeth Warren questioned the Commanders of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, and UN Command on the national security risks posed by North Korea’s crypto-funded weapons programs and crypto’s use in ‘pig butchering’ scams — a type of scam in which fraudsters target individuals, gain their trust, and then manipulate them into phony investments through cryptocurrency before disappearing with the funds.
- In February 2024, at a SASC hearing, Senator Elizabeth Warren highlighted the dangers of cryptocurrency to U.S. national security during her exchange with Admiral Samuel Paparo, Nominee to be the Commander of Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM).
- In December 2023, Senator Warren announced an expanded coalition of Senate support for the bipartisan Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act. Senators Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), all members of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, and Senators John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) and Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) joined the bill as cosponsors.
- In December 2023, at a hearing of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, Senator Warren questioned Big Bank CEOs, who agreed on the need to apply anti-money laundering rules to crypto companies to protect national security.
- In October 2023, Senators Warren and Marshall and Representative Sean Casten (D-Ill.) led 102 lawmakers in a bipartisan letter to National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Brian Nelson, Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence at the Department of the Treasury raising grave concerns about reports that in the months leading up to their brutal October 7th terrorist attack on Israel, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad raised millions of dollars via crypto, evading U.S. sanctions to fund their operations.
- In October 2023, at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Warren spoke about the need to crack down threats posed by crypto, noting that half of North Korea’s missile program is paid for through crypto crime.
- In July 2023, Senator Warren, along with Senators Marshall, Manchin, and Graham reintroduced the Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act, legislation that would mitigate the risks that digital assets pose to our national security by closing loopholes and bringing the digital asset ecosystem into greater compliance with the anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) frameworks governing the greater financial system.
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