Cryptocurrency Undermines US Sanctions: US Treasury
2 Min Read
A Sanctions Review report published on Monday revealed the Treasury's crypto-anxieties, explaining that the use of digital currencies could undermine US sanctions.
-
Cryptocurrency could challenge the "hegemoney" of the US dollar.
The US Department of Treasury released a sanctions review report on Monday explaining the effectivity and implications of US sanctions with recommendations for the future.
The report focused on the idea that the use of crypto assets and trade will undermine the effictivity of the sanctions, and that if cryptocurrency continues the way it's running now, there will be less depedency on the US dollar and US financial institutions and systems in the future. The US dollar, according to the International Monetary Fund, makes up over 60% of all central bank foreign exchange reserves and around 90% of all forex trades. In addition, almost 40% of world debt is in US dollars.
The report said, “Technological innovations such as digital currencies, alternative payment platforms, and new ways of hiding cross-border transactions all potentially reduce the efficacy of American sanctions."
The document offers recommendations for this "defect," which require more funds to "combat national security threats, including those arising from ransomware and cryptocurrency markets," in the words of the Wall Street Journal.
Furthermore, another recommendation by the report is “modernizing Treasury’s sanctions technology, workforce, and infrastructure.” Furthermore, it said that the Treasury Department “must have the right expertise, technology, and staff to support a robust and effective sanctions policymaking and implementation process" - this, again, requires more funding.
Recently, the Biden Administration proposed measures to regulate and control cryptocurrency use.
While the sterile report was published on Monday, UN experts released a report on Tuesday explaining that sanctions jeopardize Iranian rights to healthcare, causing nothing but crises and misery for the Iranian people.
