Senators Pressure Biden Administration on Crypto Mining in Iran

Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Angus King (I-Maine) pressed the Biden administration on Wednesday for information on how it is approaching Iran’s use of cryptocurrency mining to avoid sanctions.

“Iran has raised millions of dollars through crypto mining – a steady source of revenue that allows it to purchase imports, move funds nationally and internationally, and finance Hamas and other terrorist organizations,” the senators said in a letter to the Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Treasury. Secretary Janet Yellen and national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

“This continued activity by the Iranian government threatens our national security,” they added.

Crypto mining, the process of verifying cryptographic transactions and minting new tokens, has become “increasingly profitable” for Iran, which is subject to numerous U.S. and international sanctions over its nuclear program, Warren said. and King.

Bitcoin mining, in particular, funneled more than $186 million to Iranian crypto platforms between 2015 and 2021, and Tehran was one of the top eight Bitcoin-producing countries in 2021, the pair noted in their letter.

Warren and King asked the Biden administration for information about Iran’s use of crypto mining, the extent to which crypto has been used to “fund terrorist organizations, military actions, or weapons development,” and the steps the government is taking to address the issue. problem.

Warren, one of the most outspoken critics of encryption in Congress, also pressed the administration on the use of encryption by Russia, Iran and North Korea to avoid sanctions in a letter alongside Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) earlier this week.

In Monday’s letter, Warren and Marshall specifically raised concerns about Russia’s use of the stablecoin Tether to obtain weapons for its war against Ukraine despite US sanctions.