New Treasury Department reports spotlight the role of digital assets in terrorism and proliferation financing.
Details: Treasury’s 2024 National Risk Assessments cite the use of stablecoins by terrorist organizations and North Korea’s use of virtual currency mixers and decentralized finance to finance its illicit weapons programs. Separately, Chainanalysis reported that ransomware payments last year exceeded $1 billion in extorted cryptocurrency payments for the first time.
ICBA View: As part of its calls for policymakers to ensure new policies directed at the crypto sector fully reflect its risks, ICBA recently urged the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network to expand on its proposal to combat crime enabled by cryptocurrency mixers. ICBA has also supported International Organization of Securities Commissions policy recommendations on digital assets markets and decentralized finance oversight.
