A four-star U.S. Navy admiral told Congress that the military is running a live Bitcoin node and testing the network for national security use. Admiral Samuel Paparo, who leads U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, disclosed this during hearings this week. He said the command uses the node for monitoring and for operational tests designed to secure and protect networks with the Bitcoin protocol. The remarks placed Bitcoin inside a military and strategic setting, rather than a purely financial one.
Paparo made the statement during a House Armed Services Committee hearing on Wednesday. A day earlier, he told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Bitcoin has “incredible potential” for American power projection.
Senator Tommy Tuberville raised the issue during the exchange. He asked whether U.S. leadership on Bitcoin could strengthen deterrence toward China. Paparo answered in technical and strategic terms. He said INDOPACOM operates a node, does not mine Bitcoin, and uses the network for monitoring and operational testing.
He also described Bitcoin as a computer science tool, not a financial asset. In that framing, cryptography, blockchain, and proof-of-work matter more than price action or investment demand. Paparo said the network offers peer-to-peer value transfer without trust assumptions. He linked that structure to cybersecurity and to defensive applications within network protection.
He also pointed to proof-of-work as a feature that raises costs for attackers. In his view, the need for real computational resources gives the model value in cyber operations.
Paparo did not disclose the details of the military tests in public. Instead, he said he would provide that information in a non-public setting. He also did not say when INDOPACOM began running the node. He spoke in the present tense, but he gave no start date for the operation.
Even so, the statement marked a notable change in public messaging. Earlier comments from U.S. military and government figures often focused on illicit finance, sanctions evasion, and terrorism financing.
This time, Paparo presented Bitcoin as a defensive asset. He also placed it within the broader framework of national power.
Paparo’s remarks track a thesis from Major Jason Lowery’s 2023 book Softwar. Lowery argued that proof-of-work can serve as a form of military power projection in cyberspace without physical force.
Paparo did not connect that idea directly to former President Donald Trump’s Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. Tuberville raised the topic, yet Paparo focused on the technical and military aspects.
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The timing of Paparo’s comments drew attention for another reason. The monetary think tank of the Chinese Communist Party recently published research on Bitcoin as a strategic asset. The Bitcoin Policy Institute said that Chinese work responded directly to its own research. At the same time, Iran now accepts Bitcoin for transit fees in the Strait of Hormuz.
Meanwhile, politicians in Taiwan have discussed Bitcoin as a reserve asset. As a result, the protocol’s geopolitical role now reaches beyond Washington. A Bitcoin full node keeps a complete copy of the blockchain. It also validates transactions and enforces protocol rules without relying on an external trust authority.
That means INDOPACOM acts as an active participant in the network. It does more than watch events from the outside. Estimates place publicly reachable Bitcoin nodes at 15,000 to 20,000 worldwide. The actual number likely runs higher because many nodes operate behind firewalls.
In that context, one state-run node does not threaten Bitcoin’s decentralization. Still, the public record now shows that a U.S. combatant command operates one. The Bitcoin Policy Institute viewed Paparo’s remarks as a move from institutional adoption toward national adoption. Its research director, Sam Lyman, called Bitcoin an asset of undeniable geopolitical significance.
Admiral Samuel Paparo said INDOPACOM is running a Bitcoin node and testing the Bitcoin protocol for cybersecurity and national security use. His remarks marked a shift in how U.S. military leaders publicly discuss Bitcoin, moving the conversation from financial concerns to strategic network defense.