Financial Crackdowns After U.S. Capitol Riot

Shortly after the U.S. capitol riot on January 6, 2021, and about a month before the narrative started to completely collapse, payment platforms and surveillance firms worked to expose and disrupt the funding mechanisms of people present at the capitol that day.

GoFundMe actually kicked things off during the months prior by removing “fundraiser attempts that appeared to challenge the legitimacy of 2020 election results.” Several days after the riot, they removed “numerous fundraisers intended to raise money for travel expenses.” GoFundMe said the following in a statement to Fox News:

“Due to the violence, GoFundMe has removed numerous fundraisers intended to raise money for travel expenses. GoFundMe will remove fundraisers for travel expenses to a future political event where there’s risk of violence by the attendees,” a spokesperson for GoFundMe told Fox News in a statement.

“We continue to enforce our terms of service and do not tolerate fundraisers supporting hate, violence, harassment, or spreading misinformation about the 2020 election,” the statement continued.

Just use Bitcoin, right? A few days later, Chainalysis published a report on a Bitcoin transaction of 28.15 Bitcoins made on December 8, 2020 to several different “far-right activists and internet personalities.” Not only was Chainalysis able to scrutinize the entire Bitcoin financial history of people such as Nick Fuentes (someone who did not even participate in the “riot”), but they were even able to identify the donor. The article concludes by pointing out how Chainalysis can help law enforcement “prevent funds from reaching violent groups.”

Luckily, thanks to the inherent transparency of cryptocurrency blockchains, law enforcement can track these transactions in real time and work with cryptocurrency businesses to prevent funds from reaching violent groups who may use them to fund their operations and commit acts of violence. Chainalysis is actively looking to identify any additional extremist payments and activity and will keep our customers updated.

Setting aside violence perpetrated by the government, the ability to block funds from a violent group means the ability to block funds from any group, including a non-violent one.