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US Senators Cite Security Concerns in Iran’s Cryptocurrency Mining Sector
Iran’s cryptocurrency mining sector is under fire as US Senators Elizabeth Warren and Angus King believe it is a threat to national security.
According to a letter To National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, sent May 1, the senators urged the Biden administration to detail possible ties between the Iranian government and the miners of local cryptocurrencies.
Senators Warren and King believe that digital assets mined in Iran are being used bypass American sanctions and finance terrorist organizations such as “Hezbollah”. Furthermore, they allege that these funds were also used to fuel the nation’s attack on Israel in April.
Iran has been sanctioned by the United States along with other international bodies since 1979. Earlier this year, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions imposed on several entities involved in the illegal export of technology from several US companies to Iran.
“Unless we act, Iran will continue to use cryptocurrencies to finance attacks against Israel,” the letter reads.
In the letter, the two cited a report that the Iranian government preferred “freshly minted” Bitcoin because it was “less traceable.” It was also reported that Bitcoin miners in the nation generated $1 billion in revenue in 2021.
Therefore, the senators asked US officials to provide data on the revenue generated by Iranian cryptocurrency miners, their potential use in money laundering, and how they plan to address these “threats to US national security.”
Interestingly, the Iranian government did this destroyed about the cryptocurrency mining industry on multiple occasions since mining began legalized in the nation in 2019.
In 2021, the nation confiscated approximately 150,000 cryptocurrency mining equipment to address concerns of running out of electricity. The equipment, however, was released in January last year.