European Police, INTERPOL and the Basel Institute on Governance will establish a joint anti-money laundering unit specialising in digital currencies.

The announcement published on the official Europol page states that as Internet technologies advance, “there is a clear consensus that digital currencies pose a money laundering and terrorism financing threat,” even though the law enforcement has so far dealt only with “a small number of cases.”

It is often hard to trace cryptocurrency assets, says the announcement, and even harder to seize and confiscate them. The only way to fight the crime is to exchange information, knowledge and best practices. That is why the partnership between the three agencies is necessary.

As an answer to the threat, a working group will be created to gather and analyse information on the criminal use of digital currencies, investigate storage of crime proceeds in digital form, organise annual workshops and meetings between the three agencies and other institutions and create a network of bitcoin crime experts.

Alexey Tereshchenko