A large-scale usage of cryptocurrencies to circumvent sanctions isn’t seen by the US Department of the Treasury. For illegal finance, “its share as a medium is not anywhere close to that of utilizing cash,” a senior Treasury official said.
U.S. Treasury Department Opinion On Crypto Use To Evade Sanctions
In an interview with Reuters on Friday, Treasury undersecretary for domestic finance Nellie Liang discussed the potential use of cryptocurrencies as a method to avoid sanctions against Russia.
The crypto market is currently not large enough to run an economy on, and the crypto ecosystem is too undeveloped to effectively allow sanctions evasion on a wide scale, according to the senior Treasury official.
“We’ve seen transaction sizes that are fairly modest. Of course, we know that we may not be able to observe everything, but we do have some control,” Liang was reported as adding. She went on to say:
“At this point, we just don’t see that it could be used in a large-scale way to evade sanctions.”
The Treasury has been researching the matter for years, according to the person. Furthermore, the advanced economies of the Group of Seven (G7) and other countries have expressed worry about the use of bitcoin for illegal money.
She continued:
“While it’s growing because the use of crypto is growing, its share as a medium for illicit finance is not anywhere as large as just using cash.”
Senator Elizabeth Warren remains concerned, despite numerous sources stating that cryptocurrency is currently not a viable instrument for large-scale sanctions evasion.
“To ensure that Vladimir Putin and Russian elites do not exploit digital assets to disrupt the international community’s economic sanctions against Russia following its invasion of Ukraine,” she submitted a measure on Thursday. As previously reported Coinscreed, an expert has claimed that her bill is “unnecessary, overbroad, and unconstitutional.”
Last Monday, President Joe Biden signed an executive order on cryptocurrency regulation. The order instructs the Treasury Secretary to collaborate with all relevant agencies on a study on the future of money and payment systems. Liang will be in charge of the Treasury’s implementation of the executive order.
