The European Union Police Service identified the main problems associated with the wider adoption of cryptocurrencies and proposed a solution.
At the Global Conference on Criminal Finance and Cryptocurrencies in The Hague, organized by Europol with the support of the Basel Governance Institute and with the participation of European crypto-currency specialists and investigators in the field of financial crimes, the main thesis was: “Cryptocurrencies are the key to fighting organized crime.”
Europol representatives announced that cooperation is of great importance when it comes to prosecuting cybercriminals. According to speakers representing European regulators, as well as experts from the Binance crypto exchange, law enforcement and blockchain specialists TRM Labs, Chainalysis and CypherTrace, the use of digital assets is rapidly growing and taking over more countries, which is why new forms of crime are emerging.
There are more and more examples of criminal activity in which cryptocurrencies are beginning to be used: drug smuggling, financing the export and production of weapons of mass destruction, match-fixing in sports. Experts also once again reminded that cryptocurrencies are used to launder money both in the real world and after cybercrimes.
However, the main message of the conference was that the same unique blockchain capabilities that criminals use represent an unprecedented opportunity for investigating the crimes themselves. But the tools must be adapted for such work and used in collaboration between different organizations.
Europol is calculating the appropriate legislative framework that will define digital assets like any other assets so that their supervision is the same.
MEPs have previously proposed identifying and tracking suspicious transactions involving non-fungible tokens in order to better fight money laundering.
