Hillary Clinton Calls For Stronger Cryptocurrency Rules, Worried About Russian And Chinese Manipulation

JAKARTA – Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the cryptocurrency market needed stronger regulations to protect itself from technological manipulation by Russia, China and others.

His comments on cryptocurrencies as quoted by Cointelegraph are part of a larger segment in a Wednesday November 24 interview with news anchor, MSNBC TV, Rachel Maddow about the manipulation of social media platforms by certain countries.

Clinton's warning extended to "all kinds of technology," according to which states and non-state entities could be used to destabilize countries and the dollar as the world's reserve currency. He said, “There is one other thing that is on the horizon, that people are just starting to notice, and that is the need to regulate the cryptocurrency market.”

“Imagine the combination of social media, the raising of larger amounts of money through the control of certain cryptocurrency chains,” Hillary said.

The fight to preserve our democracy is a worthy and necessary battle. We can never give up because the stakes are simply too high. https://t.co/MXtURDrjYF

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) November 24, 2021

“We don't just see countries like China, Russia or others manipulating any kind of technology to their advantage. We see non-state actors, either in concert with states or in their own destabilizing states. They destabilize the dollar as a reserve currency," he added.

His particular focus is on how social media platforms, which have been used to influence elections through disinformation, can be integrated into the cryptocurrency market in a way that helps state and non-state actors destabilize other countries.

Although Hillary did not go into detail, this potential way this might happen is through market manipulation, hype creation, or even engineering financial collapse through social media troll farms.

In recent years, countries have used or are publicly considering using cryptocurrencies to get around economic sanctions from the United States.

Most notably, North Korea has used cryptocurrencies to fund its nuclear weapons program. The country has also used privacy coins and various other methods to evade detection.

The Iranian government also publicly supports cryptocurrencies. In early 2020, Saeed Mohammad, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, specifically called on Iran to use cryptocurrencies to evade sanctions.

In recent weeks, Clinton has spoken out against the problems cryptocurrencies can pose to the global dominance of the US dollar.

He said at the Bloomberg New Economic Forum in Singapore last Friday that while cryptocurrencies are an “interesting” technology, they can have a negative effect on the United States and other countries “may start small but get much bigger.”