The US Congress Looks into the link between Cryptocurrencies and Terrorism Financing

The US Congress is now looking into the cryptocurrency market. Several authorities from all around the world have previously intervened on this market will the purpose to address concerns of money laundering and terrorism financing.

New media reports claimed that the US Congress plans now to also find ways to make sure that cryptocurrencies are not linked to terrorism financing. This is said to be a priority for US authorities and one of the US policymakers has now introduced a bill aimed at curbing cryptocurrency-fueled terrorism.

The Financial Technology Innovation and Defense Act was introduced to the Congress  

The new bill is called the Financial Technology Innovation and Defense Act. This bill was already introduced to the Congress by Representative Ted Budd. One of the most important features of the new bill is the creation of a fintech task force that will have in its responsibilities rewarding people who provide valid information about cryptocurrencies' use for terrorism. How much people will receive for providing information has not been revealed.

This task force is going to include a series of federal officials, but also representatives from the banking sector, from NGOs and think tanks. The task force will include at the same time the Treasury Secretary, who will actually be the person in charge with naming the rest of the members. The task force will work to develop some tools aimed at uncovering terrorism financing and other illicit use of cryptocurrencies.

Without a doubt, the new bill indicates that US authorities are quite interested in the cryptocurrency market. Even more than that, they are interested in making sure that certain criminal activity is not enhancing because of cryptocurrencies.

Furthermore, in this context it is important to mention that this is not the first bill of this kind. A similar proposal was presented under the name of the Homeland Security Assessment of Terrorists Use of Virtual Currencies Act.