The US military is actively operating a Bitcoin node and using the network for cybersecurity-related experiments, according to Admiral Samuel Paparo, the four-star commander of US Indo-Pacific Command. The disclosure is notable not because Paparo framed BTC as a treasury asset, but because he described it as a live tool for network monitoring, protection and what he repeatedly called power projection from a computer-science perspective.
Why The US Military Is Testing Bitcoin
Paparo made the comments on April 22 during a House Armed Services Committee hearing, in an exchange published by Rep. Lance Gooden’s office. Asked what authorities and resources INDOPACOM needs to address the national security dimensions of digital assets, Paparo offered the clearest statement of the session:
“Presently, we’re in experimentation, so I’ll give you a deeper look into that. Presently, 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.”
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Four-star military officer Admiral Samuel Paparo confirms the USA is running a Bitcoin node.
“We have a node on the Bitcoin network right now. We’re doing a number of operational tests to secure and protect networks using the Bitcoin protocol.” pic.twitter.com/4JIOIMtlTW
— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) April 22, 2026
That comment followed a longer explanation of how he views BTC inside a military framework. Paparo told lawmakers that INDOPACOM’s interest is rooted in “cryptography, a blockchain, and reusable proof of work” as an additional tool to secure networks and project power.
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He then sharpened the distinction that ran through the whole exchange: “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. And so, I am supportive of those applications.” He added that, from a military application standpoint, his interest in Bitcoin is “as a computer science tool as a projection of power.”
The same line of reasoning surfaced again when Gooden asked about digital property rights and strategic competition. Paparo said people already use it “to protect their own digital property,” pointing again to the combination of proof-of-work, blockchain-based accountability and cryptography-based security. He said he sees “direct national security implications” in that design, while also backing anything that helps preserve US dollar dominance.
What makes the disclosure more consequential is that it did not come out of nowhere. The day before, Paparo appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee for INDOPACOM’s FY2027 posture hearing.
As Bitcoinist reported yesterday, Paparo had already started laying out the same thesis: that BTC should be understood less as a speculative asset than as a strategic protocol. In those earlier remarks, he said BTC “shows incredible potential as a computer science tool,” called it “a valuable computer science tool as a power projection,” and argued that, “outside of the economic formulation of it,” it has “really important computer science applications for cybersecurity.”
He also described it as “a peer-to-peer, zero-trust transfer of value,” language that closely matches the framework he used a day later when he disclosed the live node and operational testing.
At press time, BTC traded at $77,689.
