President Joe Biden is making plans to discuss cryptocurrencies at the upcoming G7 Summit. Jake Sullivan, Biden’s National Security Adviser, hinted this in a recent press briefing at the White House which has probably led to another wave of market selloffs as bitcoin price plummets by more than 10 per cent within 24 hours.
Joe Biden, the 46th President of the United States who hasn’t been much vocal on cryptocurrencies since he assumed office, had, however rolled back Steven Mnuchin, Trump’s Treasury Secretary’s controversial cryptocurrency KYC regulations policies back in January.
Jake Sullivan’s briefing that mentioned cryptocurrencies focused explicitly on the wave of rising Ransomeware attacks, with the most recent being the Colonial Pipeline attack by DarkSide. Sullivan, in his statements, said.
“It is important to deal with the cryptocurrency challenge which lies at the core of how these ransomware attacks are carried out. Ransomware is a national security priority.”
Reiterating the need to address these attacks and their relation to the growing cryptocurrency sector, Sullivan added that the US officials are planning to discuss problems related to digital currencies during Biden’s G-7 visit. He also mentioned that it is common practice for them to share their findings and needed actions with other countries to overcome the cryptocurrency challenges.
Although Biden’s administration expressed readiness to discuss the challenges of cryptocurrencies being a ready tool for Ransomeware hackers, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) under Biden is already making massive progress in stemming the tide. Even though DarkSide successfully extorted Colonial Pipeline’s management in its ransomware attack back in May, the DOJ successfully seized nearly 63.7 Bitcoin worth more than $2.3 million. The DOJ made this public knowledge in an announcement on Monday, 7th June, stating that.
“As alleged in the supporting affidavit, by reviewing the cryptocurrency Bitcoin’s public ledger, law enforcement was able to track multiple transfers of bitcoin and identify that approximately 63.7 bitcoins, representing the proceeds of the victim’s ransom payment, had been transferred to a specific address, for which the FBI has the “private key,” or the rough equivalent of a password needed to access assets accessible from the specific Bitcoin address. This bitcoin represents proceeds traceable to a computer intrusion and property involved in money laundering and may be seized in under criminal and civil forfeiture statutes.”
An April report by SecureList on the state of Ransomeware attacks showed that individuals exposed to ransomware attacks in 2021 were reduced compared to the prior years. Per the report, in 2020, the number of unique users that encountered ransomware on their devices was 1,091,454, a decline from 1,537,465 in 2019. While this may represent a decline for individuals, corporations in the engineering and manufacturing industry contained the most significant share of targeted ransomware attacks reported at 25.63%.
Bitcoin price fell from $36K to $32.4K within the last 24 hours. It is not particularly clear why the sharp decline even after a momentous Bitcoin event in Miami and El Salvador’s plans to adopt bitcoin as a legal tender within its shores.