Investigation services seize €25 million in crypto | Financial

It concerns the loot in several investigations, they report Monday. According to the Functional Prosecutor’s Office of the Public Prosecution Service, this is the largest catch ever. In 2019 it was still about €1 million in crypto that was seized, last year it was €8 million.

The investigative services also tracked down the crypto that was used in, among other things, hacks and cybercrime, as a means of payment for ransomware and to finance, for example, web hosting – services offered for websites. The wallets of dozens of suspects were seized at the same time, according to the OM.

Anonymity

According to the Public Prosecution Service, cryptocurrencies, which are legal in themselves, continue to be popular with criminals because of their anonymity. The digital coins are also popular because they can be moved quickly internationally. Crypto is increasingly used as a means of payment for various types of crime, according to the investigative services.

“In addition, we increasingly encounter cryptocurrencies in forms of crime such as online drug trafficking, human trafficking, fraud and tax evasion,” they look back on these investigations.

The Functional Prosecutor’s Office has seen for some time that cryptocurrencies are used as a means of payment in the drug trade, with traders receiving cryptocurrencies as payment for the funds that customers buy from them.

Stablecoins gewild

It is striking, according to the three organizations, that the criminals quickly try to hedge against the loss of value of their crypto coins. Those coins can sometimes move up and down by tens of percentages.

To limit that exchange rate loss, they increasingly use so-called ‘stable coins‘, of which the USDT is very popular. Such cryptocurrencies are pegged in value to the US dollar.

The identity of the suspects in the investigation is not always known, the Public Prosecution Service, National Criminal Investigation Department and FIOD reported on Monday.

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