The cryptocurrency cryptocurrency has become a way for extremist movements to get financing when banks restrict their accounts. In Sweden, the Nordic resistance movement has in recent years collected around one million kronor in bitcoin, according to a study that came out this week.
– I think they have a crowd of supporters who use the opportunity to support them financially via this cryptocurrency, and it still rolls on today with deposits, even if it is small sums every time, says Magnus Normark, analyst at the Swedish Defense Research Agency.
As a part In a study from the Swedish National Defense College on radical nationalism in Sweden, Magnus Normark looked at the role that the cryptocurrency bitcoin plays in the financing of the Nazi party Nordic Resistance Movement.
According to him, a sum of approximately one million kronor has been received by the party in bitcoin since 2018, and he estimates that this is about a third of the party’s fundraising activities.
Magnus Normark says that this is a way of circumventing the fact that the party is not allowed to have bank accounts in Nordic banks.
– Then it is also the case that it is very difficult for authorities and other institutions to try to identify who invests bitcoins, which means that there are opportunities to withdraw funding from sources that might not be acceptable if they became known, but we know very little about that, says Magnus Normark.
That right-wing extremist groups get financing in the cryptocurrency bitcoin has, among other things, attracted attention in the USA, where the authorities have found that this type of financing has increased in recent years after other banking services closed the groups’ accounts.
Jonas Trolle is head of the Center against Violent Extremism and says that it is important to try to counteract this form of funding.
– This type of financial institution is very difficult to keep track of, and it applies to other crime and lots of shady activities, so we in society, both nationally and internationally, must start looking at those who provide these opportunities for transfers, he says.
Source: ICELAND NEWS