Law enforcement is already cracking down on criminal money laundering - proves follow through action

Cryptocurrency is also used to raise funds for terrorist organizations and other nation state threat actors, although cases involving cryptocurrencies are less prevalent than those involving traditional financial assets.17 For instance, in 2020, the Department announced the government’s largest-ever seizure of cryptocurrency in the terrorism context. This action disrupted al-Qassam Brigades, alQaeda, and ISIS (Islamic State) fundraising campaigns, including a scheme in which ISIS attempted to exploit the COVID-19 pandemic by operating a fraudulent website purporting to sell N95 masks and other personal protective equipment.18 And in 2018, the Department charged twelve members of the GRU, a Russian Federation intelligence agency, with committing federal crimes intended to interfere with the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The indictment alleged that the defendants attempted to avoid detection by, among other things, funding the operation with cryptocurrency earned by mining bitcoin.19 Rogue states have also turned to cryptocurrency theft in an effort to raise funds. The United States and the United Nations have implicated the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), for example, in a number of cryptocurrency heists and other related criminal activity.20 In March 2022, Lazarus Group, a hacking group sponsored by the DPRK, stole over $600 million from a blockchain project linked to an online gaming platform.21 Regulatory actions taken in response to this theft are discussed in Part III below.