Crypto Harbors "Key" to Cracking Down on Crime, Reports Europol

Though Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are associated will illicit use by criminals, the transparent nature of the blockchain also provides law enforcement with a new way to fight crime.

This was the main point of conversation at the 6th Global Conference on Criminal Finances and Cryptocurrencies in The Hague hosted by Europol, where financial investigators and crypto specialists gathered with the support of the Basel Institute on Governance.

According to the panelists from European regulators, law enforcement, experts from crypto exchange Binance, and Blockchain specialists Chainalysis, CypherTrace, and TRM Labs, the use of cryptocurrencies is expanding ”into practically every country and sector,” facilitating new forms of crime.

Instances of crypto use for illegal activities included match-fixing in sports, drug smuggling, and, surprisingly, financing of manufacturing, acquisition, possession, and export of weapons of mass destruction.

Though, these experts all agreed on the blockchain's ability to track specific crypto transactions, to a certain extent “offer an unprecedented opportunity” to investigate organized crime and money laundering networks and to eventually recover stolen funds.

Tackling organized crime, however, will also require “the right tools, capacity, and cooperation,” said the experts.

According to Europol, all sectors committed to curbing crime, such as regulators, law enforcement, and the private sector, “are working hard to stay ahead of those who abuse crypto assets to commit crimes and launder money.”

The organization also counts on help from new European legislation to “ensure that crypto assets are treated like any other assets for the purposes of anti-money laundering regulation and supervision.”

These new laws, put into effect this year, will require crypto exchanges to retain information on their customers during transactions and to hand over any evidence to authorities during an investigation.

The new regulations, however, will not impose the tracking requirements on private, unhosted wallets that the EU Parliament initially planned in March.

As regulators continue to treat cryptocurrencies as any other asset, more people globally will safely interact with the asset, leading to new swaths of adoption.