February 08, 2021

Secret Documents Show How Terrorist Supporters Use Bitcoin — And How The Government Is Scrambling To Stop Them

Featuring: Yaya J. Fanusie

Source: Buzzfeed

Journalists: John Templon, Anthony Cormier, Jason Leopold

The propagandist who called himself Azym Abdullah didn’t need much money to set up a website for ISIS that would broadcast gruesome beheading videos. What he needed was secrecy, so in 2014 he reportedly turned to cryptocurrency.

He paid a little more than 1 bitcoin, approximately $400 at the time, to register the domain name in Iceland and host it on servers around the globe. His site asked visitors for donations to help pay for the upkeep. Those, too, were in bitcoin.

Read the full story and more from BuzzFeed.

Author

  • Yaya J. Fanusie

    Adjunct Senior Fellow, Energy, Economics and Security Program

    Yaya J. Fanusie is an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) where his research focuses on crypto, blockchain, and central bank digital currenc...