Sanctions
“States like Russia, North Korea and Iran have reliable internet access and skilled hackers. The 2017 Wannacry hackers [who sent out a virus threatening to destroy victims’ data] got their ransom in cryptocurrency. If a country is mining cryptocurrency it can stockpile it — it’s volatile but it will keep at least some of its value,” said Kayla Izenman, an analyst specialising in cryptocurrencies and security threats at the Royal United Services Institute, a think tank.