The U.S. military confirms operating Bitcoin nodes, Pentagon's encryption narrative shifts

Original Title: “U.S. Military Confirms Running Bitcoin Nodes; a Four-Star General Calls It a ‘Power Projection Tool’”
Original Author: Thursday, Deep Tide TechFlow

The U.S. military’s characterization of Bitcoin is undergoing a fundamental shift.

According to Bitcoin Magazine’s April 22 report, Admiral Samuel Paparo, commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM), this week testified consecutively before both the Senate and House Armed Services Committees, confirming that the command is currently operating a full node on a Bitcoin network and conducting a series of military cybersecurity tests based on the Bitcoin protocol.

Paparo is the top commander of the largest of the six U.S. joint combatant commands, overseeing roughly 380,000 military personnel, and responsible for the Indo-Pacific theater that covers half the planet’s surface.

During his testimony, Paparo explicitly defined Bitcoin as a “computer science tool” and a “power projection means,” rather than a speculative financial asset. This is the first time a senior U.S. military general has publicly characterized Bitcoin in such terms in Congress, and also the first known instance of a U.S. combatant command confirming direct participation in a peer-to-peer Bitcoin network.

Senate Testimony: Bitcoin as a “Tool of National Power”

On April 21, during the FY2027 National Defense Authorization Act review hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Paparo responded to questions from Senator Tommy Tuberville (Republican, Alabama) about Bitcoin’s strategic value.

Tuberville asked directly: “Can America’s leading position in the field of Bitcoin enhance deterrence against China?”

Paparo did not dodge the question. He told the committee that INDOPACOM’s research focuses on the underlying computer science architecture of Bitcoin, including the integration of three major technical components: cryptography, blockchain, and proof of work.

Paparo said: “Bitcoin is a real thing. It is a peer-to-peer, zero-trust value transfer system. Anything that supports the full set of national power tools of the United States of America is beneficial.” He also added that, “Beyond its economic attributes, Bitcoin has very important computer science applications in the field of cybersecurity.”

Paparo further elaborated on the military potential of the proof-of-work protocol. He pointed out that Bitcoin’s proof-of-work mechanism ‘imposes costs far beyond simple algorithmic network defense,’ and its applications can be extended to offensive and defensive network operations.

In other words, what the Pentagon is interested in is not Bitcoin’s price movements, but it as a computer security architecture that “makes attacks incur physical costs.”

House Hearing Confirms: “We Have a Node on the Bitcoin Network”

On April 22, Paparo, at a hearing before the House Armed Services Committee, was asked further questions by Representative Lance Gooden (Republican, Texas), and he revealed more details.

According to the official press release published by Gooden’s office that day and the verbatim hearing transcript, Paparo stated clearly: “We are currently in an experimental phase. We now have a node on the Bitcoin network. We are not mining. We use it to monitor and to conduct a series of operational tests, using the Bitcoin protocol to protect network security.”

Gooden also cited data from the Bitcoin Policy Institute during the hearing, noting that China currently holds about 194,000 Bitcoin, while the U.S. holds about 328,000. He then pressed Paparo:

In the era of digital competition, should the United States maintain a leading position in its Bitcoin holdings the way it maintains strategic resource reserves such as gold and oil?

In response, Paparo said that people are currently using Bitcoin to protect their own digital property, which is precisely the function after combining the proof-of-work protocol with blockchain and cryptography.

He also said he supports the GENIUS Act (a legislative framework for stablecoins) for helping maintain the dollar’s global dominance, but in public he did not offer an opinion on “strategic Bitcoin reserves,” saying he would rather discuss it in more secure, classified environments.

Pentagon Narrative Shift

One notable feature of Paparo’s testimony is that he “did not say much.” He did not describe Bitcoin as a reserve asset, a payment system, or a speculative tool; instead, he consistently positioned it as a computer science system with direct military relevance.

According to Bitcoin Magazine, previously, almost all public statements by the U.S. military regarding cryptocurrencies had focused on combating illegal finance and sanctions enforcement. Paparo’s testimony marks a major turn in this narrative framework: for the first time, the protocol-layer architecture of Bitcoin has been characterized by the highest-ranking commander of an active combatant command as a technology with national security value.

Sam Lyman, Director of Research at the Bitcoin Policy Institute, said in a statement that Paparo’s testimony confirmed Bitcoin “has already become an undeniable geopolitical asset.”

As of early 2026, there are about 15,000 to 20,000 publicly reachable full nodes on the Bitcoin network, and the actual number may be higher because many nodes run behind firewalls. The addition of an INDOPACOM node among them means that the U.S. military is no longer just an observer of the Bitcoin network, but a direct participant.

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