Testimony of Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo Before the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, U.S. Senate

As Prepared for DeliveryChairman Brown, Ranking Member Scott, and members of the Committee, thank you for the invitation to join you here today. I want to thank you and the members of the committee for your willingness to work with us to address various threats to our national security.I am here today because we need additional tools to protect the American people.As we take steps to cut terrorist groups and other malign actors off from the traditional financial system, we are concerned about the ways these actors are using cryptocurrencies to try and circumvent our sanctions.For example, five years ago, al-Qaeda and affiliated terrorist groups, largely based out of Syria, operated a bitcoin money laundering network using social media platforms to solicit cryptocurrency donations.