24th Parliamentary Intelligence-Security Forum – Digital Money And The Impact On National Security

Ambassador Bethel explained that the world has been awash in cryptocurrency fever, which has profound implications for National Security.

He pointed out that Central Bank digital currencies are official government tender just in a digital form, and the Biden Administration has called for the creation of an U.S. digital currency.

Central banks are creating digital versions of currencies to promote financial inclusion, collect taxes, help bank the unbanked, and trace illicit financial flows.

The biggest creator of digital currencies in the world is China.

It is estimated that 88.6 billion dollars leave the African continent every year in illicit Capital flight, so digital currencies have a lot of use cases in promoting financial inclusion and tracing illicit financial flows, but they also have national security implications.