Four US Senators are targeting digital assets in a new bipartisan bill that aims to enforce sanctions against foreign parties that transact with terrorist organizations.
According to a new press release, Republican Senators Mitt Romney of Utah and Mike Rounds of South Dakota are teaming up with Democrats Mike Warner of Virginia and Jack Reed of Rhode Island to propose a bill they say will crack down on the funding of terrorist groups such as Hamas.
“[The Senators] today introduced bipartisan legislation to crack down on terrorist organizations – like Hamas – by applying sanctions to foreign parties that facilitate financial transactions with terrorists. Currently, these sanctions are imposed only in limited circumstances…
The Terrorism Financing Prevention Act introduced today will expand this type of sanctions to cover all U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs), including Hamas, and other foreign parties that are controlled by or act on behalf of those FTOs.”
Actors identified as FTOs will either have restricted access to their US bank accounts or be unable to transact crypto assets to people in the US, according to the press release.
As stated by Romney,
“The October 7 attacks on Israel perpetrated by Hamas have made it more urgent and necessary for the U.S. to counter the role that cryptocurrency plays in the financing of terrorism.
Our legislation would expand financial sanctions to cover all terrorist organizations – including Hamas – and it would equip the Treasury Department with additional resources to counter terrorism and address emerging threats involving digital assets.”
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