US Admiral Calls Bitcoin a Tool for American ‘Power Projection,’ Cites Cybersecurity Uses

Bitcoin uses proof-of-work (PoW), cryptography and blockchain technology to enable trustless, peer-to-peer value transfers. Its computationally intensive design raises the cost of tampering and attacks. The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command oversees military operations across the Indo-Pacific. Amid intensifying strategic competition between the United States and China, a serving combatant commander’s public linkage of the protocol to cyber defense and national power projection carries significance beyond Bitcoin’s role as an investment or reserve asset.

On April 21, 2026, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command chief Admiral Samuel Paparo told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Bitcoin could use PoW to raise the cost of attacks. On April 22, he confirmed to the House Armed Services Committee that the command was running one Bitcoin node for monitoring and cyber-operation testing, but was not mining. No spending figure or budget has been disclosed.