U.S. Treasury Sees Crypto A Threat to Its Sanctions System, Cardano Founder Says they Will Kill Crypto

On Monday, October 18, the U.S. Treasury Department noted that the rising influence of cryptocurrencies can undermine the effectiveness of U.S. economic and financial sanctions and further dent the stronghold of American Dollar.

While reviewing the U.S. sanctions system, the Treasury found that "while sanctions remain an essential and effective policy tool, they also face new challenges including rising risks from new payments systems, the growing use of digital assets, and cybercriminals.”

By implementing sanction, the U.S. Treasury blocks individuals, companies or governments, from the country’s financial banking system. This further reduces the chances of the sanctioned entity to profit from the global trade since USD dominates a large part of it.

The report notes that cryptocurrencies and other alternate payment systems "offer malign actors opportunities to hold and transfer funds outside the traditional dollar-based financial system”. This incentives other players on hiding “cross-border transactions”. Besides, it also encourages “new financial and payments systems intended to diminish the dollar's global role.”

In its report, the U.S. Treasury noted: "We are mindful of the risk that, if left unchecked, these digital assets and payments systems could harm the efficacy of our sanctions”. Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo also said: "Treasury must modernize its sanctions infrastructure, technology, and workforce to adapt to evolving threats from cybercriminals, ransomware, and others”.

On the other hand, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has also lashed out at the U.S. Treasury. During his recent tour in south Africa, Hoskinson was speaking at an event in Cape Town wherein he said that the U.S. Treasury is doing all it can to shutdown crypto assets.

"In DC, the Treasury Department does everything in its power to try to kill our industry. A $2 trillion industry just pops up in our backyard, and my government's trying to kill it,” he added.

But Hoskinson also added that he’s not discouraged by the Treasury’s efforts to ,omit the influence of crypto community. Hoskinson’s recent comments are in contrast to what the Federal Reserve recently stated.

Fed Chairman Jerom Powell has assured that the U.S. central bank won’t be banning cryptocurrencies. On the other hand, the U.S. is all set to approve the first Bitcoin ETF in the market today. Bitcoin has rallied 40% since the beginning of October and is currently trading around $62,000 levels.