Pentagon Taps Bitcoin as Strategic Asset Amid Global Expansion

US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has testified before Congress that Bitcoin projects within the Pentagon are 'classified and ongoing', positioning the cryptocurrency as a strategic asset for American power. This endorsement comes amidst rising concerns about Russia and China's expanding roles in mining and using digital assets to bypass US sanctions.

Hegseth, a long-time advocate of digital assets, emphasized the potential benefits of Bitcoin in various scenarios, stating that 'a lot of the things we are doing, enabling it or defeating it, are classified efforts that are ongoing inside our department, which do provide us a lot of leverage in a lot of different scenarios.'

The Pentagon's interest in Bitcoin is not new, as Admiral Samuel Paparo Jr., head of US Indo-Pacific Command, revealed last week that the military runs a live Bitcoin node and is testing its protocol operationally. However, Hegseth's comments mark a significant shift in the perception of Bitcoin, elevating it from a fringe asset to a matter of national security.