The Federal Bureau of Investigation has 130 ongoing cases connected to cryptocurrencies according to a report.

An FBI agent announced the stunning number in a conference held in New York, explaining that the cases are in relation with crimes such as human trafficking, illegal drug sales, kidnapping and ransomware attacks.

Supervisory special agent Kyle Armstrong added a comment that compared to all the cases of the bureau, the cryptocurrency related crimes are only a ‘small sliver at this point.’

Armstrong, who oversees the virtual-currency initiative has explained that 10% of the global drug dealers are using illegal online market places such as the ‘dark web’.

Besides drug related crimes, extortion is another slice of the cake that the FBI is monitoring closely. Criminals tend to ask for digital currencies for extortion to sabotage the tracking of the payments that are required as a ransom. However, Armstrong also emphasized that blockchain based public ledger technology in fact helps the agency to track down transactions linked to illegal activities, the only difficulties are the transactions that were facilitated through anonymized transactions (like (mixers and privacy focused alternative currencies).

Whilst the FBI is working on the investigations, the House of Representatives has passed a bill on the 25th of June which aims to prevent illicit use of digital assets, including BTC, XMR, DASH and ZEC. Furthermore the US Department of Justice also announced that it has seized “nearly 2,000 bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies with an approximate value of more than $20 million,” in a global undercover operation that were targeting darknet vendors.