Fringe movements have acquired an estimated tens of millions of dollars in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, according to a study released Thursday by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

While bitcoin today is used more as an investment asset than a functioning currency, its early adopters promoted the fact that it was a way to conduct financial transactions without any involvement from banks.

For some neo-Nazis, that dovetailed with antisemitic conspiracy theories about the financial system, said Megan Squire, the center’s senior fellow for data analytics and a co-author of the report.

“There’s a pretty strong libertarian streak that runs through the far right,” she said. “Crypto looked to them like an interesting toy and a way of being in charge of their money and not having to use central banking. Then when you layer the antisemitism, on top of that, as in ‘the banks are controlled by the Jews,’ it makes a lot of sense why these early adopters, these libertarian-styled guys, would get involved in Bitcoin so early.”

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5007725&forum_id=2#43786703)