Yale Study Explains Why Cryptocurrency Prices Shift So Fast

A Bosnian immigrant that lives in Washington has been sentenced to seven years in prison for receiving Bitcoin in return for illegally modified guns as we are reading further in the bitcoin news.

The authorities say that Hany Veletanlic 36, sent weapons to violent extremists in Sweden thus violating the Arms Export Control act. The Bosnian immigrant eventually admitted to engaging in illegal gun sales in 2017 and was found later to be in possession of banned items such as silencers. The police are now concerned about the use of cryptocurrency for terrorist financing and the issue is of course, not new but as crypto gets into the mainstream, agencies are now trying to find other methods to trace transactions and to identify users.

Earlier this month, the US House Financial Services Committee held hearings to address the topic and the members of the committee were quick to draw ties between Bitcoin and terrorist supporters such as Hamas. The lawmakers in other countries such as Israel, India, Britain, and others, shared their concerns. The large-scale use of crypto for transactions was connected to Silk road which is an online marketplace that was known for drug sales that shut down in 2013 and it is not surprising that Bitcoin has a reputation in use of illicit activities. The studies also showed that the cryptocurrency is no more likely to be used for illegal activities than cash.

On the contrary, there’s a lot of evidence that shows that cryptocurrency plays a huge role in helping people that are affected by political and economic disruptions, for example, Venezuela, has been a safe haven that was used to protect assets from increasing by the inflation. The same phenomenon has been seen in Iran, Lebanon, and Argentina as well. The image of crypto being used in criminal activities is mostly pressed by the anti-crypto advocates and often those with ties to the industry that are likely to be disrupted by blockchain technology.

Law enforcement has vested a lot of interest in stopping illegal gun sales, tracking blockchain transactions which will not be an easy task. Decentralized ledger technology is designed to operate in a pseudonymous and anonymous manner. Going forward, preventing criminals from using bitcoin, the policymakers will have to recognize the revolutionary nature of the blockchain technology and to create new laws that will work with further crypto adoption.