White House Weighs Broader Oversight of Cryptocurrency Market

Representations of cryptocurrencies Bitcoin, Ethereum, DogeCoin, Ripple, Litecoin are placed connected PC motherboard successful this illustration taken connected June 29, 2021. (Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Reuters)

WASHINGTON—The White House is considering a wide ranging oversight of the cryptocurrency market to combat the increasing menace of ransomware and different cyber crime, a spokeswoman said connected Friday.

“The NSC and NEC are coordinating crossed the interagency to look astatine ways we tin guarantee that cryptocurrency and different integer assets are not utilized to prop up atrocious actors, including ransomware criminals,” the White House National Security Council spokeswoman said.

The oversight could see an enforcement order, Bloomberg News reported connected Thursday. The spokeswoman did not remark connected whether an enforcement bid volition beryllium portion of specified oversight.

Ransom bundle works by encrypting victims’ data. Typically hackers volition connection the unfortunate a cardinal successful instrumentality for cryptocurrency payments that tin tally into hundreds of thousands oregon adjacent millions of dollars.

Earlier this month, President Joe Biden said apical U.S. nationalist information advisers volition stitchery officials from 30 countries this period with plans to combat the increasing menace of ransomware and different cyber crime .

An online league hosted by the White House National Security Council volition besides beryllium aimed astatine “improving instrumentality enforcement collaboration” connected issues similar “the illicit usage of cryptocurrency,” Biden had said.