Alexander Browder of the Henry Jackson Society explains how state actors and criminal networks are exploiting cryptocurrency to fund military programs, skirt sanctions, and target ordinary investors — and why his reporting led to UK sanctions and a personal retaliation from Russia. He breaks down North Korea’s and Iran’s use of crypto, warns about the risks of stablecoins (including a Russian-backed stablecoin that processed massive illicit volumes in 2025), and explains why pensioners and retirees should be cautious. Browder also outlines his next priorities: protecting scam victims and continuing to expose illicit crypto networks.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Joining me now is Alexander Browder of the Henry Jackson Society.
Alex, great to see you. Thanks for joining us again on the program this morning.
Alexander Browder, Henry Jackson Society
Thanks for having me.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Okay, last time we had you on, we talked about all the bad actors and what they were doing to kind of skirt around sanctions and all these other things that Western and other governments are trying to do. So they’re funding a lot of bad, these bad actors are funding a lot of bad, terrorist events, et cetera. But there’ve been some developments actually, I think they’re actually, you’ve struck a nerve because they’re actually picking on you, one particular entity.
Go ahead.
Alexander Browder, Henry Jackson Society
Yeah, so to give you some update for the listeners, last month, 26 senior MPs on the back of my work, the senior UK MPs on the back of my work, wrote to the UK foreign secretary urging sanctions on Russian cryptocurrency money launderers, which I identified in my report. Last week, the UK did sanction them. But what came as a surprise to me is that I was sanctioned by Russia just two days ago.
So it’s clear I’ve struck a nerve for the Russians and my work is having a real effect.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
And I think you are creating a lot more transparency in a world that clearly is not transparent. Let me ask you a personal question, you can choose to answer it or not. How does it make you feel that you in particular were targeted by, I mean, you’re just one person, but you were targeted by the Russian government over your detailed report?
Now it was backed by several MPs or many MPs, but how does it make you feel personally?
Alexander Browder, Henry Jackson Society
Yeah, so the sanctions don’t intimidate me. It only makes me more passionate to continue. I’ve described it as a badge of honor.
There’s many other senior politicians, senior MPs, human rights activists who’ve all been sanctioned by Russia. So I joined a large group of great activists. So I’m only gonna continue my work.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
So let’s talk about that work and it’s not just Russia. I think you talked about Iran the last time we were chatting, North Korea. There are a lot of bad actors using cryptocurrency.
How are they using it? How are they skirting Western sanctions?
Alexander Browder, Henry Jackson Society
So North Korea, starting with North Korea, North Korea receives a third of their government revenue from cryptocurrency. They’ve carried out 30% of all the cryptocurrency hacks in my database. Now this money that they get from stealing cryptocurrency from regular individuals, regular pensioners, it goes directly to funding their military campaign and producing their nukes.
Iran uses cryptocurrency to skirt Western sanctions. And what I’ve identified, there are several Western cryptocurrency exchanges which have processed billions of dollars for the IRGC, which is one of Iran’s military organizations. And finally with Russia, what got me sanctioned is that one of the most recent developments, they’ve created their own stable coin called A7A5, which is a Russian backed stable coin.
In 2025 alone, it processed over $100 billion in illicit volume. Now that goes directly to sanctioned individuals. And so it’s become heavily utilized by state sanctioned actors and also just by regular criminals.
You’ve got massive darknet drug marketplaces and ransomware activities, hacking. So it’s become a hotbed for criminal activity.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
And there are, I wanna get in the stable coin in a minute, but there are a lot of different cryptocurrencies out there. But yet there’s a lot of volatility. I mean, even more volatility, Alexander, than what we typically would see in the stock market.
So does that raise concerns?
Alexander Browder, Henry Jackson Society
Yeah, so what you’ve seen these past few months is because of the war, some people may be buying cryptocurrency because they see it as an alternative to regular money, but also many of the investors are also selling crypto because they deem it to be too risky. So it’s a paradox. And so what you’ve seen in the cryptocurrency markets is that there’s been intense volatility, so much volatility that people are getting margin called, people are losing their life savings.
It’s really been disrupting the whole industry.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Yeah, and let’s go back to stable coin because I think I understand it, but most of us are familiar with the pound, with the euro, with the dollar, which I think the dollar is the standard reserve currency. It’s backed by the full faith and credit of the United States of America. What is a stable coin?
And you mentioned Russia, but will other sovereigns create their own stable coins?
Alexander Browder, Henry Jackson Society
Yeah, so other than Russia, you have many legitimate stable coins. So for the viewers who may not know what a stable coin is, this is a cryptocurrency, which is backed by some real value, like gold or the dollar. And its intended purpose is not to have the same volatility that you see within Bitcoin, which is one of the most major cryptocurrencies or Ethereum or some of these others.
So it’s meant to kind of mimic actual currency.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
And are you seeing, so I know that the bad actors are using cryptocurrency and fraudsters are using crypto, but what about legitimate businesses like banks, institutions, financial institutions, like asset managers, money managers, are they legitimately using, pension funds as an example, are they legitimately allocating or purchasing crypto for their portfolio?
Alexander Browder, Henry Jackson Society
I think for pension funds, cryptocurrency is a bit risky, but what you have seen is that some institutional investors like different major banks are starting to pick up on stable coins and cryptocurrency. And so you have seen some adoption and you will see more adoption in the future. For example, Visa just bought one of the major stable coin platforms for billions of dollars.
So you are seeing that more institutional banks and other financial platforms are starting to creep in to the cryptocurrency market.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
And I would imagine the regulatory framework here in the States, in the UK, in Europe, is that in line or is that caught up to regulating? Because there’s like a thousand or more of these things. I mean, Jeff Snyder could create a cryptocurrency if he wanted to.
Alexander Browder, Henry Jackson Society
Yeah, so. Not that I’m going to. I think most countries are falling behind, but you have different levels of catch up that has to be done.
So for example, in the US, you have where the US is at the most forefront of this. What one major step for your viewers may know was the creation of something called the Genius Act, which created federal rules for stable coins. For example, under that law, stable coin issuers must hold strong reserves, whether that’s treasuries or others, and they must provide monthly public disclosures about those reserves.
And then you also have something which just went slightly through. I don’t know if it’s the Senate or Congress, but the Clarity Act, which is designed to make cryptocurrency legislation more clear and easier for cryptocurrency institutions. However, here in the UK, I must say we’re really falling behind.
UK regulation and legislation for cryptocurrency is only going to come into effect into at least late 2027. And so we’re really falling behind, but yeah.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Well, hopefully they’ll catch up. I mean, I have to imagine that there are sharing of information between our country, your country, in terms of what types of regulations are being done. You talked about the Clarity Act.
I want to ask you about, one of the things that are going on here in the States is we have new regulations that could allow investments like crypto, alternative investments like private markets, private equity to be in America’s retirement plans. Like we have what we call 401k, which is analogous to your NEST program in the UK. What about transparency into, from my perspective, it’s hard to really understand what a cryptocurrency is.
Therefore, I need to know that in order to invest in it.
Alexander Browder, Henry Jackson Society
Yeah, so in the UK, at least, the FCA, which is the major financial regulator, says to people investing in cryptocurrency, you should expect to lose everything you put into cryptocurrency. So for maybe retirees, pensioners, it may be more risky to put their money into something which can lose value really quickly. So for retirees and people wanting to have safe investment, most people should focus on more traditional investments.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Yeah, let me go back to your research because I know you said you’re not intimidated. You kind of wear it as a badge of courage. I’m paraphrasing your, so what’s next in your research?
Because my understanding is that, this is just peeling back the layers. There are many, many layers and these are sophisticated networks, right? I mean, so what’s next?
If you can share what’s, I don’t want to tip off the bad actors, but what’s next in your research?
Alexander Browder, Henry Jackson Society
Definitely, so bad actors are constantly developing and they’re constantly dynamic. So every, it’s like a game of cat and mouse. Well, or like whack-a-mole.
Yeah, I was gonna think of that, yeah. Once I take down one bad actor, you’ve got two which spring up. So I need to constantly work to stop this.
And another one of my big focuses is I wanna protect people in the UK, in the US, in the EU, who are falling victim to some of these cryptocurrency scams and who are having their cryptocurrency stolen because there’s millions of victims, whether that’s in the EU, the UK or the US who are falling victim to some of these scams and especially some more senior people who get tricked or duped into sending money into cryptocurrency to bad actors. So this has become a real problem and this is one of my focuses for the future of taking down.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Yeah, I think you’re gonna be pretty busy. I think it is a game of whack-a-mole and you knock one down and they pop back up. I think that’s what makes us asymmetrical.
It’s very asymmetrical, very hard to approach. Alexander, we thank you so much for A, doing the work that you’re doing. I’m sorry that you were sanctioned.
I hope you stay safe. And look, we look forward to having you back on the program again very soon, sir.
Alexander Browder, Henry Jackson Society
Great, thank you so much. Thank you.
