During a Senate hearing on Wednesday, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren highlighted the widespread use of cryptocurrency in the Chinese fentanyl trade and called for legislation to disrupt this pipeline. Research from Elliptic showed that over 90 Chinese businesses offering to ship fentanyl precursors took crypto in exchange. The U.S. Treasury Department's assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes testified that bitcoin payments in cryptocurrency wallets were appealing to precursor manufacturers and illicit drug organizations due to the pseudonymity they offer. Senator Warren proposed the reintroduction of her Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act to help cut off crypto payments to the fentanyl trade.
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