Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW.

It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin, and the big picture power shifts remaking our world.

What's going on, guys? It is Thursday, October 19th, and today we are talking about the latest

salvo of Elizabeth Warren's anti-crypto army. Before we get into that, however, if you are enjoying

the breakdown, please go subscribe to it, give it a rating, give it a review, or if you want to dive

deeper into the conversation, come join us on the Breakers Discord. You can find a link in the show

notes or go to bit.ly.L.Y slash breakdown pod. Hello, friends. Today is blissfully not a Sam

Bankman-Fried trial day, and instead, we're going to be talking about the other big topic

that has lurked for the last couple weeks, which is, of course, crypto's role in terrorism financing.

Now, as was completely expected, Senator Elizabeth Warren has used the war in Israel to renew her calls for

tighter anti-money laundering controls to be applied to the crypto industry. On Tuesday, Warren wrote

letters to both the U.S. Treasury and the White House calling for officials to, quote,

take strong action to thoroughly address crypto-elicit finance risks before it can be used to finance

another tragedy. Alongside Warren, over 100 lawmakers co-signed the letter. These signatories were

largely Democrats from both the House and the Senate, and the letter said, as Congress considers

legislative proposals designated to mitigate crypto money laundering and illicit finance risks,

we urge you to swiftly and categorically act to meaningfully curtail illicit crypto activity

and protect our national security and that of our allies. The letter leaned heavily on

Wall Street Journal reporting from last week, which had framed

Hamas as, quote, one of the most sophisticated crypto users in the terror finance domain.

Also, unsurprisingly, Warren's letter did not mention that Hamas had announced the suspension

of their use of Bitcoin to receive donations in April, citing concerns that the ability to

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