Statement of Senate Intel Chairman Mark R. Warner – On President Biden’s executive order regarding cryptocurrency

WASHINGTON – On March 9, 2022, U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA), Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, released the following statement regarding President Biden’s executive order on ensuring responsible innovation in digital assets:

“Today’s executive order does a commendable job of balancing the potential opportunities and benefits of digital assets in financial innovation, economic inclusion, and global payments modernization against the risks and challenges they present to core U.S. interests. I applaud the executive order’s recognition that maintaining the centrality of the United States in the global financial system – and, in particular, the role of American governance standards and the primacy of the U.S. dollar – is absolutely fundamental to our efforts with regard to digital assets. The EO’s urgency with respect to a strategy for a U.S. Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) is especially welcome, and I look forward to working with the administration on further steps to engage on international norms and standards related to CBDCs.

“Today, we face a highly motivated adversary that is actively searching for opportunities to evade the substantial sanctions imposed by the Biden administration and our allies around the globe. We must ensure that all participants in the digital assets marketplace are actively complying with sanctions, and we need to develop clearer guardrails and improved enforcement to address fraud, illicit finance, and insecurity in the wider digital assets industry.”

Last week, Sen. Warner sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen raising concerns regarding the potential use of cryptocurrency to evade sanctions imposed on Russia after their invasion of Ukraine.