Conspiracy theorists were vindicated yesterday when Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director William Burns admitted at the Wall Street Journal‘s CEO Summit that the CIA was indeed involved in various crypto projects.
Details Are Murky, Obviously
One of the oldest conspiracies out there, at least in the crypto space, is that the CIA is responsible for creating Bitcoin. For the most part, that view is widely discredited and in the end is irrelevant, as Spencer Schiff pointed out.
While the CIA didn’t invent Bitcoin, it has however confirmed that it is involved in the crypto industry across various projects, although details of what that specifically entailed were absent from the discussion.
Burns, who was only recently appointed, responded to a question about whether the intelligence agency was equipped to handle ransomware attacks and the like, particularly those emanating from abroad (such as the Colonial Pipeline attack earlier this year).
Speaking about his predecessor, Burns noted that:
He [likely to be David Cohen, but unclear] had set in motion a number of different projects focused on cryptocurrency and trying to look at second- and third-order consequences as well, and helping with our colleagues in other parts of the US government to provide solid intelligence on what we’re seeing.
William Burns, CIA director
CIA Focused on Ransomware Attacks
Details as to what Burns and the CIA were doing remain opaque. One plausible theory is that they are establishing networks in order to understand them with a view to targeting and disrupting others. Another theory is that they are looking to undermine crypto networks’ credibility to quash a growing sentiment that the US dollar’s hegemony is drawing to a close.
One clue, however, was something Burns said, suggesting that criminal activities, specifically ransomware attacks, were one of the main focuses:
One of the ways of getting at ransomware attacks and deterring them is to be able to get at the financial networks that so many of those criminal networks use, and that gets right at the issue of digital currencies as well.
William Burns, CIA director
Of course, Twitter has been rife with speculation, ranging from genuine concern to satire. One user even joked that perhaps the CIA was behind NFT sensation the Bored Ape Yacht Club.
One thing’s for sure – when it comes to the CIA, things will never quite be what they seem.
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