How crypto is funding a flood of election disinformation online
Crypto is part of the 2024 election cycle.
Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and others have all talked about digital assets on the campaign trail.
However, cryptocurrency isn’t just a campaign talking point.
Bad actors use it to fund election disinformation campaigns, Chainalysis said in a report released on Wednesday.
“Crypto is a tool like any other that’s utilised to support these influence operations globally,” Valerie Kennedy, director of investigations at the crypto data firm, told DL News.
Chainalysis’ findings follow an especially politically charged month.
The attempted assassination of former President Trump and current President Biden’s decision to not seek reelection have dominated headlines—and led to a suite of conspiracy theories.
While crypto has factored into previous election cycles, its use has recently expanded, said Kennedy.
“There are more options that are available on the clear and dark web to facilitate and make it easier to facilitate these types of operations,” she said.
SouthFront
Crypto plays two roles in disinformation campaigns, Kennedy said.
Bad actors use it to directly fund their operations, and the infrastructure services digital meddlers rely on accept cryptocurrencies as payment.
In its report, Chainalysis pointed to SouthFront, a Russia-based outlet that spreads disinformation.
After the 2020 election, “SouthFront sought to promote perceptions of voter fraud,” the US Department of Treasury said when announcing sanctions against 16 entities and 16 individuals linked to those operations in 2021.
To help fund its operations, SouthFront solicited crypto donations.
Chainalysis cited one example of a donor who sent $2,700 in crypto to a sanctioned SouthFront address.
$7.7 million in Bitcoin
Chainalysis also sketched out how infrastructure providers, like offshore web hosting firms, accept millions in crypto.
These also include bot farms, which let users purchase stolen or compromised social media accounts, and virtual number services.
Disinformation spreaders use virtual number services to create phone numbers to receive two-factor authentication requests from social media companies.
One such service has both “sent and received approximately $7.7 million in Bitcoin,” wrote Chainalysis.
Kennedy, the director of investigations, said it’s difficult to measure how much crypto props up the disinformation economy.
“But from what we can see,” she said, “crypto does play a significant role.”
Ben Weiss is DL News’ Dubai Correspondent. Got a tip? Email at [email protected].
