Joe Biden, the current President of the United States, has remained quiet about Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency assets for the last few months. But, the latest statement from Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, indicates that the US President is planning to raise the issues related to the role of Cryptocurrencies in ransomware at the G-7.
During the recent press briefing at the White House, Sullivan said: “It is important to deal with the cryptocurrency challenge which lies at the core of how these ransomware attacks are carried out. Ransomware is a national security priority.”
Sullivan added that the US officials are planning to discuss problems related to digital currencies during Biden’s visit to the G-7 meeting. The national security adviser mentioned that a plan is required to share information with other democracies in order to overcome the cryptocurrency challenges.
In January 2021, Biden halted all Federal regulatory processes including the controversial cryptocurrency KYC regulations proposed by the former Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin.
Cryptocurrency and Ransomware
The latest comments from Sullivan came after the US Department of Justice (DOJ) seized nearly 63.7 Bitcoin worth more than $2.3 million. The cryptocurrency ransom was paid by the Colonial Pipeline to a group known as DarkSide. In May, hackers targeted the infrastructure and operations of Colonial Pipeline.
“As alleged in the supporting affidavit, by reviewing the cryptocurrency Bitcoin’s public ledger, law enforcement was able to track multiple transfers of bitcoin and identify that approximately 63.7 bitcoins, representing the proceeds of the victim’s ransom payment, had been transferred to a specific address, for which the FBI has the 'private key', or the rough equivalent of a password needed to access assets accessible from the specific Bitcoin address. This bitcoin represents proceeds traceable to a computer intrusion and property involved in money laundering and may be seized pursuant to criminal and civil forfeiture statutes,” the US DOJ mentioned in an official announcement on Monday.
