The White House is vetting Saule Omarova, a Cornell professor, for the role of comptroller of the currency. Her work has highlighted the risks of cryptocurrency for banks.
Bitcoin and Encryption: A Race Between Criminals and the F.B.I.
The F.B.I. scored two major victories, recovering a Bitcoin ransom and tricking lawbreakers with an encryption app. But criminals may still have the upper hand.
The F.B.I. headquarters in Washington. The bureau has resources to recover stolen cryptocurrencies that are beyond the reach of most law enforcement agencies.Credit.Stefani Reynolds for The New York Times
June 12, 2021, 11:04 a.m. ET
Whether it was gangsters a century ago speeding off in faster getaway cars, or terrorists and hackers in recent decades who shielded their communications through encrypted apps, criminals have perennially exploited technology to stay a step ahead of law enforcement.
El Salvador Becomes First Nation to Make Bitcoin Legal Tender
The digital currency can be used in any transaction and most businesses will have to accept payment in Bitcoin. The U.S. dollar will continue to be El Salvador’s main currency.
President Nayib Bukele on Sunday. “Everything can be paid in U.S. dollars or Bitcoin and nobody can refuse payment,” he said.Credit.Jose Cabezas/Reuters
By The Associated Press
June 9, 2021, 1:15 p.m. ET
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador El Salvador’s Legislative Assembly has approved legislation making the cryptocurrency Bitcoin legal tender in the country, the first country to do so, just days after President Nayib Bukele made the proposal at a Bitcoin conference.
Pipeline Investigation Upends Idea That Bitcoin Is Untraceable
The F.B.I.’s recovery of Bitcoins paid in the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack showed cryptocurrencies are not as hard to track as it might seem.
Gas lines at Costco in Greensboro, N.C., last month during the shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline from a ransomware attack.Credit.Woody Marshall/News & Record, via Associated Press
June 9, 2021, 3:54 p.m. ET
When Bitcoin burst onto the scene in 2009, fans heralded the cryptocurrency as a secure, decentralized and anonymous way to conduct transactions outside the traditional financial system.
Criminals, often operating in hidden reaches of the internet, flocked to Bitcoin to do illicit business without revealing their names or locations. The digital currency quickly became as popular with drug dealers and tax evaders as it was with contrarian libertarians.