CIA Director: Duh, Of Course, the CIA Is Into Cryptocurrency

In a disclosure that should storm no one , the head honcho at the CIA has affirm that the intelligence operation agency has multiple projects related to cryptocurrency .

Rumors — often not wholly serious — have long circulated that the anonymous creators of flagship cryptocurrency bitcoin could have ties to the news residential district , while a more common sentiment among crypto fans is that the U.S. regime is lurking in the backdrop , waiting to deform its muscle over the whole shebang . Yet , asflagged by Motherboard , on Monday CIA Director William Burns characterized the agency ’s involvement to attendees at theWall Street Journal ’s chief operating officer Summitas relatively late .

“ This is something I inherit , ” Burns told the consultation . “ My predecessor had bug out this , but had set in motion a number of unlike projects focused on cryptocurrency and trying to look at second- and third - order consequences as well and helping with our colleagues in other parts of the U.S. government to provide unanimous news on what we ’re seeing as well . ”

CIA Director William Burns testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee on April 14, 2021 at the Capitol in Washington, DC.

CIA Director William Burns testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee on 7 April 2025 at the Capitol in Washington, DC.Photo: Saul Loeb / Pool (Getty Images)

That the CIA is concerned is the inverse of shocking , whatever one thinks of the cryptocurrency mankind ’s libertarian ethos . After all , cryptology , which the blockchain technology that powers cryptocurrencies is based on , has always beenof extreme interestto the military and intelligence activity residential district . It ’s the key to both safeguarding one ’s own operations andgaining intelligenceon adversaries . The prying eyes of the nation ’s spies have no doubt been watching as cryptocurrency detonate from niche condition to a kind of world - spanning , pseudo - anonymous shadow financial web .

InternalNational Security Agency documentsfrom 2013 leaked by Edward Snowden show that “ track down ” user of bitcoin and other cryptos was one of the agency ’s top priorities , spurring some worries that NSA data was secretly being used in criminal prosecution like that of Silk Road headpin Ross Ulbricht ( which theFBI has denied ) . Cryptocurrency is a valuable prick to actors the CIA might be help keep track of , such ransomware gangs capable of causingchaos at large institutionsandtargetinginfrastructure — which are oftenbased abroadand sometimes suspected to be draw to land - state actors . Ransomware is a type of malware that maliciously encrypts Indian file system to be unrecoverable without knowledge of a specific cryptanalytic key , with the operator typically demanding the dupe pay a ransom in the configuration of cryptocurrency to regain admittance to the targeted system .

For lesson , aMay 2021 cyberattackon the Colonial Pipeline managed to stimulate gas shortages and aminor panicacross the Eastern Seaboard . The bunch that infected the pipeline operator ’s systems with ransomware is believed tobe based in Russia . The tone-beginning was at least partly the result ofdecades - long negligenceon infrastructure cybersecurity the feds suddenly appear to be paying a wad more attending to . The U.S. military Cyber Command recently unwrap that it has taken unspecifiedoffensive actionagainst ransomware gangs targeting U.S. companies , raising some concern that it ismilitarizing the responseto cybercrime .

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Burns specifically mention ransomware during his remark at the league , pronounce cryptocurrency was one of the ways malicious actors that have otherwise hid their rail can be identified .

Cryptocurrency “ could have enormous impact on everything from ransomware attacks , as you mentioned , ” Burns severalize the hearing . “ Because one of the ways of getting at ransomware attacks and deterring them is to be able to get at the financial networks that so many of those condemnable web use and that gets right at the issue of digital currency as well . ”

Most did n’t seem very concerned . Crypto Cobain , a Twitter account with over 530,000 follower , pinch a jape thread speculating what projectsmight be CIA operations . Another bitcoin promoter namedSpencer Schiffargued that if the CIA invented bitcoin , it would n’t seriously bear upon his eyeshot on it , as the agency has clear lose control of it . Other Twitter users used the remarks as cannon fodder for jabs at crypto task they did n’t like , suggesting they were CIA projects . A few confederacy - minded users be adrift that estimate that the CIA use bitcoin or other digital currencies to fundblack task .

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