The United States military is operating a Bitcoin node and using the protocol in operational tests aimed at securing and protecting networks, a disclosure by Admiral Samuel Paparo during congressional hearings has revealed.
Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, disclosed during an exchange with Congressman Lance Gooden at a House Armed Services Committee hearing on Wednesday that he was pressed on the strategic implications of digital assets amid competition with China.
Gooden cited research estimating that China holds about 194,000 Bitcoins, compared with roughly 328,000 held by the United States, and asked whether maintaining an edge in that area could be of strategic value, much like gold or oil.
Responding to the lawmaker, Paparo said the military’s interest in Bitcoin was rooted not in finance, but in the technical properties of the network. “We have a node on the Bitcoin network right now. We’re not mining Bitcoin. We’re using it to monitor, and we’re doing a number of operational tests to secure and protect networks using the Bitcoin protocol,” he said.
Paparo described Bitcoin as a tool built on cryptography, blockchain and reusable proof-of-work, arguing that its value to the military lay in network security and power projection rather than monetary competition.
“Our interest in Bitcoin is as a tool of cryptography, a blockchain, and reusable proof of work as an additional tool to secure networks and project power,” he said.
“I think this protocol is here to stay. I think the computer science of it has direct implications for the projection of power — not financial, but from a computer science standpoint — from the securing of networks,” he added.
He also linked Bitcoin’s architecture to broader questions of digital property and national security. “People use Bitcoin today, right now, to protect their own digital property,” Paparo said, referring to “the reusable proof-of-work protocol” combined with blockchain accountability and cryptography for security. “I see direct national security implications, and then I’m supportive of anything that maintains our own dollar dominance worldwide,” he added.
Paparo struck a similar note in separate testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee a day earlier, where he was questioned by Senator Tommy Tuberville on whether US leadership in Bitcoin could strengthen deterrence against China. In that exchange, he called Bitcoin “a peer-to-peer, zero-trust transfer of value” and said it had “really important computer science applications for cybersecurity.”
He also said Bitcoin showed “incredible potential” as a computer science tool because proof-of-work protocols could impose real costs beyond the algorithmic securing of networks and the ability to operate.
The testimony represented a notable public endorsement of Bitcoin’s protocol-level utility for national security purposes, with Paparo framing it as a strategic technical asset rather than an economic one. He said “all instruments of national power are important”, but stressed that from “the military application standpoint”, his interest in Bitcoin was as “a computer science tool as a projection of power”.
For now, however, the work remains in an experimental phase, Paparo told lawmakers.
The remarks mark the first time a US combatant commander has publicly characterised Bitcoin as a national security asset, highlighting its growing relevance in military and cyber strategy.
