Cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin have continued to rise in profile, including as a method to pay for goods and services in the mooted next generation of the internet, Web3. But as more money pours into the so-far loosely regulated currencies, government scrutiny is also increasing.
On 17 February, the US Justice Department announced that it was launching a National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team designed to monitor blockchains, the underlying technology behind cryptocurrencies, for any ill-gotten gains. It will work with various groups, including the FBI’s newly launched Virtual Asset Exploitation Unit, which also focuses on cryptocurrency.
“With the rapid innovation of digital assets and distributed ledger technologies, we have seen a rise in their illicit use by criminals who exploit them to fuel cyberattacks and ransomware and extortion schemes; traffic in narcotics, hacking tools and illicit contraband online; commit thefts and scams; and launder the proceeds of their crimes,” said Kenneth Polite Jr at the US Justice Department in a statement.The FBI, along with many other law enforcement agencies, have made no bones about the fact that they see cryptocurrency – and bitcoin in particular – as the favoured means of monetising crimes, especially the ever-increasing scourge of ransomware,” says Alan Woodward at the University of Surrey, UK.
At the same time, cryptocurrencies have broken out from being an online niche to something seen as a more mainstream investment. Large cryptocurrency exchanges ran adverts featuring Hollywood stars during the Super Bowl on 13 February, one of the world’s most-watched sporting events, which was viewed by 112 million people.
While cryptocurrency exchanges are legitimate businesses, the increased prominence of the technology makes it easier for people to fall victim to illegitimate scams. “Cryptocurrency scams and other crimes are impacting more and more people in a plethora of different ways,” says Matthew Shillito at the University of Liverpool, UK. In May 2021, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said it saw a 12-fold increase in numbers, and 1000 per cent rise in value, of reported cryptocurrency scams, compared with a year before. The volume of scams rose significantly throughout 2020 and 2021, the FTC said.
In a sense, the creation of the NCET is an acknowledgement that cryptocurrencies are set to play an increasingly important role in the US economy, and therefore must be policed as such. “The instability and fraud have been tolerated until now, but as more and more people sink their savings into crypto, the danger of collapse is more real,” As many as seven in 10 cryptocurrency trades on the world’s most popular but unregulated exchanges may be people buying from themselves to artificially inflate prices, according to a new analysis.
A study of 29 cryptocurrency exchanges, where people buy and sell the virtual currencies, undertaken between July and November 2019 has found significant volumes of “wash trading” within cryptocurrencies. Wash trading is where an investor sells and buys the same asset to create artificial interest in an investment, often distorting …
The US has become the world’s largest bitcoin-mining nation after a regulatory crackdown in China earlier this year saw the country plummet from a dominant 38 per cent of global market share to zero.
Analysis from the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI), published by researchers at the University of Cambridge, shows that the US more than doubled its own global market share, from 16.8 per cent in April to 35.4 per cent at the end of August
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