•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Bitcoin is increasingly being framed by senior U.S. officials as a national security tool, with the Pentagon reportedly operating its own Bitcoin node for operational testing. At a Senate hearing last week, Admiral Samuel Paparo Jr., Commander of the United States Indo-Pacific Command, said bitcoin has “really important computer science applications for cybersecurity” and described it as a “valuable computer science tool as a power projection.” The following day, at a House hearing, Paparo said the Pentagon is running a Bitcoin node to conduct “a number of operational tests to secure and protect networks using the Bitcoin protocol.”
Paparo’s testimony comes as other countries explore bitcoin for strategic purposes. The article says Iran is accepting bitcoin for transit tolls in the Strait of Hormuz, Taiwanese policymakers are considering bitcoin as a reserve asset to protect Taiwan’s wealth from confiscation in the event of a Chinese invasion, and Russia announced it will accept bitcoin for foreign trade transactions starting in July.
Taken together, these moves are presented as a shift in bitcoin’s evolution—from institutional adoption toward nation-state adoption.
The article highlights a major U.S.-China legal conflict as evidence of China’s interest in bitcoin’s strategic role. In October 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice seized 127,000 bitcoin—described as about $15 billion—from Chen Zhi, a Chinese national and chairman of Cambodia’s Prince Group. The DOJ charged Chen with running “pig butchering” schemes in Southeast Asia that drained hundreds of American citizens of their life savings.
Before U.S. authorities could detain Chen, he was extradited from Cambodia to China in January, after Chinese authorities drew up their own charges against the 38-year-old billionaire. The article notes that China has no extradition treaty with the United States.
While China holds Chen to account, the article says China is also accusing the United States of wrongdoing. China’s National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center alleges that U.S. state actors hacked Chen’s bitcoin in 2020, taking the funds from LuBian, Chen’s bitcoin mining pool, and later announced they had “seized” the funds as part of a DOJ enforcement operation last fall.
The article argues that the dispute’s subtext is about political leverage over bitcoin holdings. It says China has a history of seizing bitcoin from criminal actors within its own borders, and that restoring the seized bitcoin to Chen could allow the Chinese Communist Party to claim Chen’s bitcoin as its own.
Using figures cited in the article, it states that with Chen’s bitcoin stack, China would hold approximately 321,000 bitcoin compared with about 198,000 bitcoin held by the United States—positioning China as the largest nation-state holder.
The article also contrasts China’s approach to bitcoin with its broader technology control efforts, noting that China banned cryptocurrency trading and mining by its citizens before launching its central bank digital currency in 2021, and that it built internet infrastructure before erecting the Great Firewall to keep Western platforms out.
Congressman William Timmons, chair of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Military and Foreign Affairs, is described as skeptical about whether bitcoin can be controlled like other technologies. In comments included in the article, Timmons said: “Bitcoin is the beginning of the end of all authoritarian governments.” He added that if a government cannot control its citizens regarding information and money, “what do you have left?”
The article contrasts Timmons’ view with Admiral Paparo’s earlier framing. It says Paparo described bitcoin as a defensive tool to secure sensitive information, while Timmons described bitcoin more as an offensive tool that could pierce capital controls in states that use money to control their citizens.
According to the article, whether bitcoin functions as a shield, a sword, or both will become clearer over the next decade as state competition over the world’s largest decentralized monetary network enters its next stage.
Premium gym chains are entering a “golden era” that is ending or already in decline, as rising operating costs collide with shifting consumer preferences toward more flexible, community-based ways to exercise. Long-term memberships are shrinking, margins are pressured by higher rents and facility expenses, and competition from smaller, more personalized…
