Democratic House members will form a new group to address cryptocurrency-related concerns, Rep. Maxine Waters said in a virtual hearing. The group, according to Waters, will focus on engaging with regulators and experts to do a "deep dive on this poorly understood and minimally regulated industry." Waters also added that the reason for forming the group is an exponential growth of cryptocurrencies.
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Nonetheless, it remains unclear which representatives would be involved in the group. Waters' new push against the cryptocurrency market comes after the US Department of Justice gave ransomware-related investigations the same priority as terrorism.
The US authorities turned their attention to ransomware attacks after hackers used the technique to attack the country's largest pipeline network, Colonial Pipeline. The hackers crippled its systems and demanded a ransom in a cryptocurrency to restore access. Analyst firm Elliptic estimates that the hacking group called DarkSide, which was blamed for the Colonial Pipeline attack, received at least $90 million in BTCs in ransoms over the course of its history.
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