A bipartisan group of representatives has introduced a bill to the House that seeks to create a task force focused on combating terrorist financing via cryptocurrencies. U.S. Representative Ted Budd (R-NC) has sponsored a new piece of legislation that aims to create an agency tasked with combating the use of cryptocurrencies in terrorist financing. The bill — H.R. 296 — is co-sponsored by Reps. Warren Davidson (R-OH), Stephen Lynch (D-MA), Byron Donalds (R-FL), and Darren Soto (D-FL) and was introduced on Wednesday. 

The bill seeks to provide rewards for information leading to convictions. 

Apart from creating a task force, the bill aims to provide rewards for information leading to convictions related to terrorist use of digital currencies, to establish a Fintech Leadership in Innovation and Financial Intelligence Program to encourage the development of tools and programs to combat the terrorist and illicit use of digital currencies, and for other purposes.” Following the introduction, the bill was referred to the Committee on Financial Services and the Committee on the Budget for preliminary deliberations. 

AML and Financing of Terrorism continue to be a major issue for regulators. 

Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism continue to be a major anti-crypto talking point for several government agencies. However, cryptocurrency forensic data points to limited adoption of virtual currencies by terrorist organizations. Back in May 2020, blockchain intelligence outfit Chainalysis debunked claims that terrorist group ISIS owned about $300 million in Bitcoin. However, the U.S. Justice Department has reportedly seized crypto funds allegedly belonging to ISIS and Al-Qaeda terrorist networks. In June 2020, reports also emerged that ISIS-affiliated media platforms were collecting donations in Monero, a popular privacy coin.