Admiral Samuel Paparo appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee on April 21 to review the posture of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in advance of the fiscal year 2027 defense request.
Paparo reportedly revealed that INDOPACOM runs Bitcoin nodes and treats the protocol’s architecture as operationally relevant to securing and powering the network.
In February 2024, Paparo told Sen. Elizabeth Warren that the “opacity” of cryptocurrencies is a key factor in proliferation, terrorism, and illegal trade. He added that cryptocurrencies are “making the world less secure” and acknowledged that blockchain methods could make financial transactions more secure.
The US government’s main arguments have been that cryptocurrencies are a compliance headache, a means to circumvent sanctions, and a source of revenue for North Korea.
Currently, Paparo treats Bitcoin encryption, blockchain accountability, and proof of work as components of a toolkit for network security and power projection. In two years, the terminology changed from pathology to protocol. This may be related to SoftWar author and US Space Force member Jason Lowery’s work in this area.
How Washington built its policy base
Paparo’s 2026 remarks arrived in a policy architecture that has been in the making for more than a year.
On January 23, 2025, the White House made it U.S. policy to protect legitimate access to open public blockchain networks and promote dollar-backed stablecoins around the world. The order drew a line in the sand in Washington, recognizing open public blockchains as infrastructure and separating them from the broader “all cryptocurrencies are questionable” category.
On March 6, 2025, the White House established the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, directed that Bitcoin placed in the reserve not be sold, and granted Bitcoin the same sovereign asset treatment that the U.S. government applies to gold.
On July 18, 2025, the GENIUS Act was passed, with the White House positioning it as a national security measure and expanding its scope by tying stablecoin regulation to the dollar’s status as a reserve currency.
The Treasury Department proposed rules to implement the GENIUS Act’s AML requirements by April 2026 and launched a cybersecurity information sharing initiative for digital asset companies, describing these companies as a critical part of the U.S. financial sector and whose resilience is tied to the broader system.
This places digital asset infrastructure within critical systems thinking, establishing the same framework that Paparo’s position statement uses for INDOPACOM’s own mission network.
Why the venue makes all the difference
INDOPACOM’s April 2026 position statement rejects China’s goals and describes a command built around achieving “information and decision superiority” and deploying a “data-centric, zero-trust architecture mission partner environment” across partner networks with resilient C5ISRT systems that can operate across contested domains.
In a hearing room dedicated to China’s deterrence, cyber effectiveness, and zero trust mission networks, remarks about the Bitcoin protocol fell within the command’s own strategic vocabulary, manned by the commander himself.
Reuters reported in January 2026 that the China-led mBridge platform processed more than $55.5 billion in more than 4,000 cross-border transactions, with the digital renminbi accounting for about 95% of the transaction volume.
The Indo-Pacific region is already at war over payments and settlement architecture, and Paparo’s command is the U.S. agency most directly responsible for managing that conflict.
Bitcoin reclassification coexists with Washington’s aggressive enforcement stance.
According to the Treasury Department’s March 2026 report to Congress, North Korean cybercriminals stole at least $2.8 billion in digital assets from January 2024 to September 2025, including $1.5 billion in Bybit theft that the FBI attributed to North Korea.
The Treasury Department’s 2026 National Money Laundering Risk Assessment states that illegal actors prefer stablecoins for laundering due to their liquidity and stability.
Washington’s current stance is bifurcated between open public blockchains receiving infrastructure-level protection, Bitcoin receiving reserve asset treatment, and stablecoins receiving national planning frameworks, with the rest of the digital asset ecosystem still operating through a strict compliance lens.
The Washington government parses the stack by protocol type and gives each layer its own policy treatment, and the April 2026 Treasury Cyber Initiative fits exactly into that model.
how this is resolved
In the case of bulls, it progresses through confirmation and extension. If other defense and intelligence agencies begin using similar protocol-level language, the NDAA and national strategy documents could eventually address participation in public blockchains as part of resilience plans or as an adversary identification tool.
The trajectory from the January 2025 Executive Order through the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve to the Indopacom Posture Hearing confirms the arc of Bitcoin completing its transition from an asset class to a strategic foundation.
The bear incident progresses through scandals and comebacks. A major North Korea-related theft, a wave of ransomware timed to a geopolitical flashpoint, or a high-profile sanctions-evasion incident could overwhelm the infrastructure debate and push authorities back toward treating Bitcoin as integral to broader illicit finance issues.
Paparo’s own 2024 language demonstrates how quickly that framework can dominate hearings, and Treasury’s compliance lens remained fully in place throughout the policy development.
If Paparo’s statements are true, the policy record around him is already being rewritten in which rooms Bitcoin is discussed.
Reserve assets join the wealth conversation with budgets, fiduciaries, and governments. The protocols built into the Zero Trust mission network will be built into the conversation of resilience, attribution, and competition with adversaries.
Protocols related to Zero Trust mission networks fall into a different policy category than ransomware payment instruments.
Once these distinctions become part of the official vocabulary, Bitcoin’s audience in Washington will expand far beyond financial regulators and compliance officers.
(Tag translation) Bitcoin
