Bitcoin Was Russian Hackers' Currency of Choice, U.S. Says

For years, Bitcoin believers have tried to distance the digital coin from the perception that it’s only used for criminal activity. New insights into Russian meddling in the U.S. election aren’t helping.

Bitcoin was the currency of choice among the Russian intelligence officers indicted for hacking offenses related to the 2016 presidential campaign, the U.S. said Friday. The conspirators primarily used the virtual coins when buying servers, registering domains and making other payments related to the cyber breaches, according to the indictment. Many of the transactions were processed by U.S. companies.

“To facilitate the purchase of infrastructure used in their hacking activity -- including hacking into the computers of U.S. persons and entities involved in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and releasing the stolen documents -- the defendants conspired to launder the equivalent of more than $95,000 through a web of transactions structured to capitalize on the perceived anonymity of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin,” the U.S. said.