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SOF and Crypto
New innovations and technology can be integrated into the toolbox of the SOF operator; including tools found within the financial world. Tools like crypto offer additional resources for the special operations operator. This includes covert payments, nonstandard acquisitions, F3EAD, and deception operations.
Digital assets provide potential advantages for non-attributable funding, rapid cross-border value transfer, partner-force sustainment, and operational resilience, but also introduce counterintelligence, legal, and volatility risk
Our adversaries, Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea, are all using cryptocurrencies for nefarious activities. Many of these operational uses of crypto by adversaries cn also be used by U.S. SOF in the conduct of irregular warfare.
Traditional financial channels (SWIFT, wire transfers, cash logistics) can expose operational intent, create political friction, or be blocked by sanctions regimes. Cryptocurrency offers an alternative mechanism for moving value without reliance on conventional banking systems.
There are several potential operational use cases. These include partner force sustainment in denied enviromments, operational security advantages, sanctions evasion, rapid humanitarian, and stability support.
There are some risks. These include a counterintelligence risk, volatility and liquidity, and others.
References and Papers about SOF and Crypto
Pero, Michael C., Understanding Bitcoin and its Utility
for Special Operations Forces", Naval Postgraduate School,
March 2022, PDF, 57 pages.
https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/trecms/pdf/AD1173467.pdf
Harsono, Hugh, "Prioritizing SOF Counter-Threat Financing Efforts in the Digital Domain", Cyber Defense Review, U.S. Army, Fall 202, PDF, 7 pages
McBride, Megan and Zack Gold, Cryptocurrency:
Implications for Special Operations Forces, CNA Analysis
and Solutions, August 2019, PDF 79 pages.
https://www.cna.org/reports/2019/08/CRM-2019-U-020186-Final.pdf
News Articles about SOF and Crypto
"Covert Crypto: a Double-edged Sword for Special Operations", by Catherine M. Woods, Irregular Warfare Initiative, April 9, 2026.
Videos about SOF and Crypto
September 13, 2022, Cryptocurrency Utility for Special
Operations Forces, Defense Analysis Department, Naval
Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA. 34 minutes.
https://nps.edu/web/nps-video-portal/-/cryptocurrency-utility-for-special-operations
August 15, 2019, Cryptocurrency: Implications for Special Operations Forces, CNA, YouTube, 2 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4utl2Wx4DmA
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