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Pete Hegseth told Congress on April 30, 2026, that U.S. efforts related to Bitcoin are classified and conducted within the Pentagon, framing the technology as a potential tool for national security rather than solely a financial asset.
Speaking during a House Armed Services Committee hearing, Hegseth responded to questions from Texas Rep. Lance Gooden about how the United States can secure a strategic advantage in Bitcoin.
“I am a long enthusiast of Bitcoin and crypto potential,” Hegseth said, adding that work to enable or counter the technology remains classified. He stated: “A lot of the things we are doing, enabling it or defeating it, are classified efforts that are ongoing inside our department, which do provide us a lot of leverage in a lot of different scenarios.”
Hegseth characterized those classified efforts as providing leverage across multiple scenarios and linked Bitcoin’s underlying architecture to defense applications.
His remarks followed earlier testimony from Samuel J. Paparo Jr., who confirmed that U.S. Indo-Pacific Command operates a live Bitcoin node and is testing the protocol in operational settings.
Paparo described Bitcoin as a computer science system built on cryptography, blockchain, and proof-of-work, and said its design could impose real-world costs in cybersecurity environments.
Taken together, the statements represent a shift in how senior U.S. defense officials describe Bitcoin, moving away from a primary focus on illicit finance concerns and toward its role as a technical instrument.
Hegseth also tied Bitcoin to geopolitical competition, saying it can serve as a counterweight to what he described as China’s model of digital control.
The remarks align with broader Trump administration initiatives that view digital assets through a national security lens, including discussions around a potential 2026 Bitcoin reserve.
Hegseth’s comments build on his personal history of interest in the technology, including prior disclosures of holdings before divesting upon assuming his role. Market participants and policy observers cited the remarks as another signal of growing institutional acceptance of Bitcoin within federal agencies.
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