The pigeons and the cryptowars

The Russians have apparently decided that pigeons are the future of warfare. Forget stealth bombers—now it’s feathered drones with chips tucked under their wings. These “bio-drones” flap innocently over city squares, scanning both bakeries and bunkers alike. Imagine a Russian general briefing: “Comrades, the recce pigeons are flying to the assigned mission”. Civilian targets? Military bases? Doesn’t matter, every rooftop is fair game for a bird with Wi-Fi. One wonders if they also download breadcrumbs as part of their mission. And of course, this avian espionage is marketed as cutting-edge hybrid warfare. It could be real or it could be an ephemeral Psyop, featuring the Neiry company and the PJN-1 (assonating with Pigeon 1).

In any case nothing says “21st century geopolitics” like a flock of cybernetic pigeons. The twist? Their data could not just help reconnaissance reports or hunting enemy UAVs, it allegedly could feed into crypto markets. Yes, somewhere a blockchain quivers as pigeons peck out the next Bitcoin crash. In fact one cryptocurrency is called Pigeon (PJN) and it is not just a form of money, but a whole secure communication system, soon to become a social medium.

The wars of the twenty-first century are no longer fought solely with tanks and missiles. They unfold in silence, in the intangible realm of codes, algorithms, and viral narratives. NATO defines hybrid warfare as a multifaceted conflict that combines military and civilian instruments, physical and digital domains, with the aim of destabilizing an adversary without necessarily resorting to conventional force. Within this framework, cryptocurrencies, and particularly stablecoins, have emerged as strategic weapons: financial and cognitive instruments operating beyond the reach of traditional regulatory systems.

What was once heralded as a promise of freedom and decentralization (the blockchain) has metamorphosed into a battlefield. No longer merely a vehicle for investment, it has become an economic, cognitive, and cyber arsenal capable of striking at the very heart of global trust in financial systems.

Operational Examples: when cryptofinance is weaponised

• Russia–Ukraine (2022): In the face of Western sanctions, Moscow intensified its use of cryptocurrencies to circumvent banking restrictions. Stablecoins, pegged to the US dollar, became particularly attractive as they allowed Russian actors to bypass the international banking system while indirectly exploiting the credibility of American sovereign debt.
• Middle East (2024): During the escalation between Israel and Iran, a wave of disinformation on social media propagated the narrative of Bitcoin’s imminent collapse. Within hours, its price fell by 4%, exacerbated by coordinated cyberattacks on exchanges. This was not a mere market fluctuation, but a deliberate act of psychological warfare.
• Global Energy Crisis (2025): Bitcoin surpassed $120.000, perceived as a safe haven. Yet behind the surge lay orchestrated manipulations by hostile powers, leveraging cryptocurrency as a geopolitical instrument to destabilize rival economies.

These episodes illustrate how cryptocurrencies can be deployed as economic weapons (circumventing sanctions), cognitive weapons (manipulating collective perception) and cyber weapons (undermining digital infrastructures).

Stablecoins vs. US Public Debt

Stablecoins, by design, are often backed by reserves denominated in U.S. Treasury securities. This linkage creates a paradox: while they reinforce the global demand for American debt instruments, they also expose the United States to systemic vulnerabilities.

• A sudden liquidation of stablecoin reserves could trigger volatility in the Treasury market, undermining confidence in U.S. debt sustainability.
• Hostile actors could weaponize stablecoin flows, orchestrating mass redemptions to destabilize the bond market and amplify perceptions of fiscal fragility.
• The intertwining of stablecoin ecosystems with U.S. sovereign debt means that financial warfare conducted through digital assets could reverberate directly into the core of American fiscal policy.

Thus, stablecoins are not merely neutral instruments of payment; they are potential vectors of geopolitical leverage, capable of magnifying risks associated with the world’s largest public debt.

Cryptocurrency fluctuations are no longer merely speculative phenomena. They respond directly to geopolitical shocks:

• Military crises → sudden collapses and mass liquidations.
• Economic tensions → speculative rallies and the perception of crypto-assets as “safe havens.”
• Hybrid operations → strategic manipulations of digital markets designed to destabilize rival economies.

Volatility thus becomes an indicator of global instability, a thermometer measuring the temperature of invisible conflicts.

For states and international institutions, the manipulation of cryptocurrency values constitutes a strategic threat.

• National security: crypto volatility must be treated on par with cyberattacks and propaganda.
• Cognitive defence: new instruments are required to counter financial disinformation, monitoring forums, social networks, and trading platforms.
• International regulation: the absence of global governance facilitates the use of cryptocurrencies as hybrid weapons. The Bank of Italy, in its UIF 2025 report, highlighted the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing linked to crypto-assets.

Possible Remedies

1. Advanced financial intelligence: establish task forces dedicated to monitoring suspicious blockchain transactions, integrating OSINT and artificial intelligence.
2. International cooperation: strengthen collaboration among NATO, the European Union, and global financial institutions to define common standards of digital security.
3. Cognitive education: promote financial literacy programs to render citizens and investors less vulnerable to disinformation.
4. Targeted regulation: implement frameworks such as the European MiCA regulation, balancing innovation with security.
5. Cyber resilience: invest in the protection of exchanges and wallets, treating them as critical infrastructures akin to energy grids and transportation networks.
6. Debt-market safeguards: monitor the interaction between stablecoin reserves and U.S. Treasury securities, ensuring that sudden shocks in the crypto ecosystem do not destabilize sovereign debt markets.

The manipulation of cryptocurrency values has become an integral component of hybrid warfare. It fuses economic, cognitive, and cyber dimensions, redefining the very concept of conflict. Stablecoins, in particular, embody a duality: they reinforce the centrality of U.S. debt in global finance, yet simultaneously expose it to novel forms of manipulation.

For intelligence services and academic institutions alike, the study of this phenomenon is indispensable: it is no longer a matter of finance, but of global security.

The cryptowar has begun. The world must decide whether to endure it passively, or to learn how to fight it.

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By Gerardo Spagnuolo
Specialist in semiotics, emerging technologies, information warfare, soft power strategies and crisis communication skills.