The United States House Financial Services Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology and Inclusion received an education in the uses of blockchain technology in a hearing titled “Crypto Crime in Context: Breaking Down the Illicit Activity in Digital Assets” on Nov. 15. The hearing was bipartisan in nature, chair French Hill stated at the outset.
Hill began the meeting by citing an article published by The Wall Street Journal on Oct. 10 on the use of crypto by Hamas for fundraising. The article was corrected on Oct. 27 to reflect more accurately crucial data produced by blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, as Hill also mentioned. He continued:
“Phone and the internet aren’t to be blamed for terror financing, and crypto shouldn’t either.”
In a similar vein, subcommittee ranking member Stephen Lynch stated the hope that “we can put aside some of the preconceived notions some may have.”
The panel of witnesses included representatives of Consensys and Chainalysis, as well as forensic experts and a senior counsel from law firm Hogan Lovells. They spoke about the need for international collaboration and public-private collaboration in stopping the misuse of digital assets, the need for well-crafted legislation and the intricacies of blockchain sleuthing.
Representative Brad Sherman asked Dynamic Securities AnalyticspresidentAlison Jimenez for an example of a licit use of a crypto mixer, which she was unable to provide.
Plenty of other voices wanted to be heard at the same time on this topic. Hill, Representative Tom Emmer, Financial Services Committee Chair Patrick McHenry and Representative Ritchie Torres were lead signers, along with a bipartisan group of 53 more House members, of a letter to U.S. President Joe Biden and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Nov. 15.
The letter requested information on Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fundraising and the role of cryptocurrency in its efforts. The letter stated:
“It is important to understand the scope of Hamas’s digital assets fundraising campaign in the context of its traditional funding activities.”
It went on to say that traditional fundraising methods “could far exceed” the revenue brought in through crypto, and Congress needs assistance “understanding the size, scope, and duration of Hamas’s digital asset fundraising campaign, as well as accurate information on blocked or forfeited digital assets from terrorist organizations.”
The letter cites the same Wall Street Journal article. On Nov. 12, the WSJ published a second article by the same authors on the use of crypto to funnel money to Hamas.
Also on Nov. 15, the Blockchain Association released an open letter to Hill and other members of the Financial Services Committee. That letter was signed by 40 former members of the U.S. military, intelligence officers and national security professionals who now have links to digital assets companies or venture capital.
#HappeningNow: Chairman @RepFrenchHill convenes the Digital Assets, Financial Technology and Inclusion Subcommittee for a hearing entitled “Crypto Crime in Context: Breaking Down the Illicit Activity in Digital Assets.”
They also mentioned the earlier WSJ article, saying they were concerned that the “grossly overstated” and “debunked” article “continues to be used to push legislation that would be counterproductive to U.S. national security interests.”
Encouraging the growth of a regulated, compliant digital asset industry in the United States is the best way to root out bad actors, the letter continued.
The SEC notice seemed to be an industry first after the commission approved the listing and trading of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds on US exchanges in January.
Nigel Farage has spoken about his aspirations as Reform UK party leader and insists he could become prime minister.
He told Sky’s political correspondent Darren McCaffrey the prospect of taking over at Number 10 at some point “may not be probable, but it’s certainly possible”.
In an interview on the sidelines of the Reform UK annual conference in Birmingham, he also described his intention to change the party and make it more democratic.
“I don’t want it to be a one man party. Look, this is not a presidential system. If it was, I might think differently about it. But no, it’s not. We have to be far more broadly based,” he said.
He also accepted there were issues with how the party was perceived by some during the general election.
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Highlights of Farage’s conference speech
“We had a problem,” he admitted. “Those that wished us harm use the racist word. And we had candidates who genuinely were.”
Earlier the party leader and Clacton MP gave his keynote speech at the conference, explaining how they intend to win even more seats at the next general election.
He also called out the prime minister for accepting free gifts and mocked the candidates in the Tory leadership race.
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Farage jokes about PM accepting gifts
But he turned to more serious points, too – promising that Reform UK will “be vetting candidates rigorously at all levels” in future.
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Addressing crowds in Birmingham, Mr Farage said the party has not got “time” or “room” for “a few extremists to wreck the work of a party that now has 80,000 members”.
Farage says Reform UK needs to ‘grow up’
By Darren McCaffrey, political correspondent in Birmingham
Reform and Nigel Farage can hardly believe their success.
Perhaps unsurprising, given they received over four million votes and now have five MPs.
But today this is a party that claims it has bigger ambitions – that it’s fighting for power.
Having taken millions of votes from the Conservatives, the party thinks it can do so with Labour voters too.
Reform finished second in 98 constituencies, 89 of them are Labour seats.
But it is a big ask, not least of all because it is a party still dominated by its controversial leader and primarily by one majority issue – migration.
Nigel Farage says the party needs to grow up and professionalise if it has a chance of further success.
This is undoubtedly true but if Reform is going to carry on celebrating, they know it also has to broaden its policy appeal beyond the overwhelming concern of its members.
“The infant that Reform UK was has been growing up,” he said in his speech and pointed towards the success of the Liberal Democrats at the general election.
He told delegates his party has to “model ourselves on the Liberal Democrats” which secured 72 seats on a smaller popular vote share than Reform UK.
He said: “The Liberal Democrats put literature and leaflets through doors repeatedly in their target areas, and despite the fact they haven’t got any policies at all. In fact, the whole thing’s really rather vacuous, isn’t it? But they manage with a vote much lower than ours to win 72 seats in parliament.”
Reform won more than four million votes in July, and 14% of the vote share – more than the Lib Dems.