U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo says crypto should be regulated like SWIFT and other electronic financial transactions

U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, one of Donald Trump's closest advisors, has said that cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin and Facebook's upcoming cryptocurrency Libra, should be regulated in the same manner as all other electronic financial transactions.

Pompeo shared his thoughts in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday, saying: "The same set of requirements that apply to things flowing through SWIFT or flowing through our financial institutions ought to apply to those transactions as well."

Pompeo, however, hopes that the world does not move in the direction of anonymous cryptocurrency transactions, as it would "decrease the security for the world."

"The risk with anonymous transactions is one that we all know well. We know this from 9/11 and terror activity that took place in the 15 years preceding that, where we didn't have good tracking; we didn't have the capacity to understand money flows and who was moving money," Pompeo said, adding:

"We need to preserve a financial system, a global financial system, that protects that."