Deputy Director of the CIA Micheal Jayellis said the CIA views Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as a tool they can use for payments.

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) views Bitcoin (BTC) as a tool they can use for payments, according to the agency’s Deputy Director Micheal Jayellis.

During an interview at Pompliano’s 2025 Block Chain & Beyond Conference in New York City, Jayellis said there’s a lot of work the CIA does with law enforcement to track illicit crypto payments by bad actors, whether they are drug cartels, terrorist groups, or outlaw regimes.

“We’re working closely with them to try to shut down those avenues of revenue and support for their activities,” he said.

Jayellis acknowledged that Bitcoin is an area of technological competition where the CIA needs to ensure that the U.S. is “strategically positioned” against China and other adversaries. He also argued that the U.S. needs to ensure it is a leader in the crypto space internationally.

“Bitcoin is here to stay. Cryptocurrency is here to stay. As you know, more and more institutions are adopting it, and I think that’s a great trend and one that this administration has been obviously leaning forward to.”

The agency’s Deputy Director believes there is potential for law enforcement and the intelligence community to use cryptocurrencies to help track and disrupt what adversaries are doing. He also said the virtual asset is a target, something the CIA can “disrupt our adversaries’ use of it.”

Jayellis noted that the agency also uses digital currency technology to collect more intelligence and gather more information about them. He argued that Bitcoin was similar to other advanced technologies, which the CIA needed to prioritize.

The CIA’s deputy director mentioned that the CIA was working on the President’s agenda, which is “the total elimination of the cartel.” He said that it was Trump’s priority and that it was what the agency seeks to achieve, “and we’re gonna do it.” Jayellis added that it would be a collective government effort, where all parts of the U.S. government would play a role in taking down the cartel threat.

The former general counsel of the National Security Agency maintained that the threat was also an international problem, similar to the threat the CIA had successfully fought for the past two decades. He said the agency needs to ensure no gaps between intelligence and law enforcement in disrupting those networks before the threat reaches the U.S. borders.

President Trump understands that we can’t pass the American Dream onto the next generation if we let China dominate us.

He’s the first President of my lifetime to call China a threat to our American way of life. They’re our biggest enemy and it’s past time we fight back.

Jayellis gave President Trump credit for being the first to realize and point out to people that China has been competing in an unfair way. He added that Trump was the first to recognize that China was also breaking the rules on trade, international property theft, and cyber security.

He condemned the previous U.S. Presidents for their policy to “enable the peaceful rise of China,” but noted Trump was the first to say it was absolutely wrong. Jayellis argued that although countries like North Korea, Iran, Russia, ISIS, and Al Qaeda are a threat to the U.S., “China is the existential threat to the United States” in the economic and technological realm.

The CIA’s deputy director noted the agency’s aim is to give U.S. President Donald Trump a decisive intelligence advantage. He revealed China was a “tough target” for the intelligence community to operate in and collect on. Jayellis said it was the CIA’s top priority to give the President the best possible intelligence on China and every other country in the world.

The CIA’s executive also noted that the agency’s goal is to give the U.S. a decisive advantage in the global technological competition in all fields, including quantum computing, AI, semiconductors, and biotechnology, against China.