The U.S. Military Is Running A Bitcoin Node, Admiral Says

Admiral Samuel Paparo, commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM), confirmed that the U.S. military is running an active node on the Bitcoin network, which he described as the first known confirmation of a U.S. combatant command directly participating in the network. Paparo said the command is conducting "a number of operational tests to secure and protect networks using the Bitcoin protocol." In Senate Armed Services Committee testimony on April 21, he described Bitcoin as a computer science tool rather than a financial asset, calling it "a peer-to-peer, zero-trust transfer of value." The article estimates there are 15,000 to 20,000 publicly reachable full nodes on the Bitcoin network as of early 2026.