U.S. Financial Service Committee to Hold Hearing on Illegal Crypto Activity

By: Dickson Arinze

U.S. Financial Service Committee to Hold Hearing on Illegal Crypto Activity

November 13, 2023 2:43 PM

The Financial Services Committee meeting will focus on discussing illegal activities like money laundering and terror financing.


On November 15, the United States Financial Services Committee (FSC) will hold a hearing to investigate criminal behavior in the cryptocurrency industry.


At the session titled "Crypto crime in context: breaking down the illicit activity in digital assets," famous crypto entrepreneurs will testify.


Consensys's senior counsel and director of worldwide regulatory matters, Mr. Bill Hughes, and Chainalysis's co-founder and chief strategy officer, Mr. Jonathan Levin, are scheduled to testify at the hearing. Along with the two will be a former federal officer and expert in human trafficking finance, Jane Khodarkovsky. 


"Congress must comprehend the extent of criminal conduct, the means at its disposal to combat it, and any potential gaps in the prevention and detection of unlawful activity to guarantee that bad actors do not take advantage of the digital asset ecosystem.”


The session will focus on discussions around illegal activities like money laundering and terror financing. With the rise of sanction designations and hacking, FSC referenced a January 2023 Chainalysis report that found illicit cryptocurrency volumes had reached an all-time high.


The committee will also investigate how far crypto exchanges and DeFi providers have gone to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism.


During the hearing, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) will also be asked about their roles as leading organizations.


FSC chairman Patrick McHenry indicated in July that legislation was being marked up to provide regulatory certainty for the issuance of stablecoins intended for use as payment.


The Department of Justice has also just decided to expand the size of its crypto crime unit. The DOJ formed the new "super-charged" unit, which was entrusted with combating ransomware crimes, by combining its two teams, namely the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET) and the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS).