{"id":409948,"date":"2025-11-02T08:31:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T03:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/criminal-crypto-use-is-becoming-increasingly-sophisticated-says-europol-crypto-news\/"},"modified":"2025-11-02T08:35:44","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T03:05:44","slug":"criminal-crypto-use-is-becoming-increasingly-sophisticated-says-europol-crypto-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/criminal-crypto-use-is-becoming-increasingly-sophisticated-says-europol-crypto-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Criminal Crypto Use Is Becoming &#8216;Increasingly Sophisticated&#8217;, Says Europol &#8211; Crypto News"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"position:relative;overflow:visible;font-size:1.2em;line-height:1.58\">\n<div class=\"pt-8 pb-10 border-t border-b border-decryptGridline \">\n<h4 class=\"sc-b2a202e4-4 bNRGqr gg-dark:text-white\" color=\"#333\">In brief<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"font-meta-serif-pro font-normal text-lg md:text-xl md:leading-9 tracking-px text-body gg-dark:text-neutral-100\">Europol said misuse of crypto is \u201cbecoming increasingly sophisticated,\u201d straining national police resources.<\/li>\n<li class=\"font-meta-serif-pro font-normal text-lg md:text-xl md:leading-9 tracking-px text-body gg-dark:text-neutral-100\">Experts have called for global standards and unbiased blockchain training to strengthen cross-border investigations.<\/li>\n<li class=\"font-meta-serif-pro font-normal text-lg md:text-xl md:leading-9 tracking-px text-body gg-dark:text-neutral-100\">A recent conference highlighted the need for cooperation between public and private sectors as crypto crime evolves.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"font-meta-serif-pro scene:font-noto-sans scene:text-base scene:md:text-lg font-normal text-lg md:text-xl md:leading-9 tracking-px text-body gg-dark:text-neutral-100\"><span style=\"font-weight:400\">The head of Europol&#8217;s European Financial and Economic Crime Centre (EFECC), Burkhard M\u00fchl, warned this week that the misuse of crypto and blockchain for criminal purposes is \u201cbecoming increasingly sophisticated,\u201d as he pledged continued investment from Europol to support member states in complex and international investigations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"font-meta-serif-pro scene:font-noto-sans scene:text-base scene:md:text-lg font-normal text-lg md:text-xl md:leading-9 tracking-px text-body gg-dark:text-neutral-100\"><span style=\"font-weight:400\">\u201cInvestigating these crimes places a significant burden on the law enforcement agencies of EU member states,\u201d he added.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"font-meta-serif-pro scene:font-noto-sans scene:text-base scene:md:text-lg font-normal text-lg md:text-xl md:leading-9 tracking-px text-body gg-dark:text-neutral-100\"><span style=\"font-weight:400\">His comments came during the 9th Global Conference on Criminal Finances and Crypto Assets from Oct. 28-29, jointly organised by Europol, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and the Basel Institute on Governance, and focused on the evolving ways that crypto assets and blockchain are being misused for crime.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"font-meta-serif-pro scene:font-noto-sans scene:text-base scene:md:text-lg font-normal text-lg md:text-xl md:leading-9 tracking-px text-body gg-dark:text-neutral-100\"><span style=\"font-weight:400\">While representing only a small segment of the overall proceeds of financial crime, the Chainalysis 2025 crypto crime report, <\/span><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.chainalysis.com\/blog\/2025-crypto-crime-report-introduction\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow external noopener\" class=\"sc-adb616fe-0 bJsyml\"><span style=\"font-weight:400\">released<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight:400\"> in January, gave a lower estimate of $40.9 billion in value received by illicit cryptocurrency addresses in 2024. The figure excludes traditional crimes such as drug trafficking, where crypto is used merely as a payment or laundering tool.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border:0\" src=\"https:\/\/myriad.markets\/embed\/market\/btc-above-or-below-110k-on-monday-noon\" width=\"100%\" height=\"415px\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"width:0px;overflow:hidden;line-height:0\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"font-meta-serif-pro scene:font-noto-sans scene:text-base scene:md:text-lg font-normal text-lg md:text-xl md:leading-9 tracking-px text-body gg-dark:text-neutral-100\"><span style=\"font-weight:400\">Europol has coordinated several major takedowns this year, including the dismantling of a cybercrime network in Latvia that <\/span><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/decrypt.co\/345214\/europol-takes-down-cybercrime-network-in-latvia-seizes-330000-in-crypto\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"sc-adb616fe-0 bJsyml\"><span style=\"font-weight:400\">laundered<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight:400\"> more than $330,000 through cryptocurrency, a clandestine hawala banking network that <\/span><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/decrypt.co\/320836\/europol-busts-hawala-banking-network-cashing-crypto-for-criminals\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"sc-adb616fe-0 bJsyml\"><span style=\"font-weight:400\">laundered<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight:400\"> over $23 million using crypto, and a &#8220;crypto investment fraud ring&#8221; that <\/span><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/decrypt.co\/327751\/spanish-police-dismantle-540-million-crypto-investment-fraud-ring\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"sc-adb616fe-0 bJsyml\"><span style=\"font-weight:400\">profited<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight:400\"> almost $540 million from more than 5,000 victims.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"font-meta-serif-pro scene:font-noto-sans scene:text-base scene:md:text-lg font-normal text-lg md:text-xl md:leading-9 tracking-px text-body gg-dark:text-neutral-100\"><span style=\"font-weight:400\">Europe has also been hit by a spate of so-called wrench attacks, which involve physical assaults on cryptocurrency holders to compel them to hand over their private keys to their wallets. In particular, France has seen 16 such attacks this year alone, according to a <\/span><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/jlopp\/physical-bitcoin-attacks\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"sc-adb616fe-0 bJsyml\"><span style=\"font-weight:400\">record<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight:400\"> of \u201cKnown Physical Bitcoin Attacks\u201d kept by Jameson Lopp.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"font-meta-serif-pro scene:font-noto-sans scene:text-base scene:md:text-lg font-normal text-lg md:text-xl md:leading-9 tracking-px text-body gg-dark:text-neutral-100\"><span style=\"font-weight:400\">The challenges for many police forces in targeting crypto-related crime lie in its global nature, and the need for cross-border cooperation in operations that sometimes can be difficult to bring about. For example, victims of hacks or scams in Europe may be targeted by people running operations out of elsewhere.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"font-meta-serif-pro scene:font-noto-sans scene:text-base scene:md:text-lg font-normal text-lg md:text-xl md:leading-9 tracking-px text-body gg-dark:text-neutral-100\"><span style=\"font-weight:400\">Challenges also remain in how law enforcement and the private sector investigate crimes too. Among them, investigators say the lack of harmonized standards remains a serious hurdle. Diana P\u0103tru\u021b, project manager at the Blockchain Intelligence Professionals Association (BIPA), told <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight:400\">Decrypt<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight:400\"> that varying analytics companies often produce inconsistent tracing results, complicating cross-border collaboration.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"font-meta-serif-pro scene:font-noto-sans scene:text-base scene:md:text-lg font-normal text-lg md:text-xl md:leading-9 tracking-px text-body gg-dark:text-neutral-100\"><span style=\"font-weight:400\">\u201cOur stakeholders have articulated that different blockchain analytics firms produce different results when tracing transactions. There has also been no standardization for wallet attribution, methodology, training, and formatting, making cross-border investigations especially challenging,\u201d P\u0103tru\u021b said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"font-meta-serif-pro scene:font-noto-sans scene:text-base scene:md:text-lg font-normal text-lg md:text-xl md:leading-9 tracking-px text-body gg-dark:text-neutral-100\"><span style=\"font-weight:400\">\u201cWe are really at the beginning of this process and to make any real progress, we need to encourage more dialogue,\u201d she said, \u201cso that we can get stakeholders from both the public and private sectors to come together to develop these standards jointly and, more importantly, to adopt them wholeheartedly.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"font-meta-serif-pro scene:font-noto-sans scene:text-base scene:md:text-lg font-normal text-lg md:text-xl md:leading-9 tracking-px text-body gg-dark:text-neutral-100\"><span style=\"font-weight:400\">P\u0103tru\u021b added that training also remains an area that needs work.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"font-meta-serif-pro scene:font-noto-sans scene:text-base scene:md:text-lg font-normal text-lg md:text-xl md:leading-9 tracking-px text-body gg-dark:text-neutral-100\"><span style=\"font-weight:400\">\u201cThe biggest issue we see at the moment is that blockchain intelligence training appears to be primarily driven by private sector solutions, and this creates the confirmation bias, herding trainees to specific commercial solutions and methodologies, without necessarily understanding or appreciating their underlying application,\u201d she explained.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"font-meta-serif-pro scene:font-noto-sans scene:text-base scene:md:text-lg font-normal text-lg md:text-xl md:leading-9 tracking-px text-body gg-dark:text-neutral-100\"><span style=\"font-weight:400\">P\u0103tru\u021b suggested that there\u2019s a \u201cneed for investigators and financial institutions to develop their own critical assessment capabilities,\u201d and specifically called out a \u201cskills gap\u201d in regard to open-source tools and the technology underpinning crypto.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"font-meta-serif-pro scene:font-noto-sans scene:text-base scene:md:text-lg font-normal text-lg md:text-xl md:leading-9 tracking-px text-body gg-dark:text-neutral-100\"><span style=\"font-weight:400\">P\u0103tru\u021b also cautioned against oversimplifying what qualifies as a \u201ccrypto-related\u201d crime, and comparing the scale of crypto crime compared to traditional financial crime.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"font-meta-serif-pro scene:font-noto-sans scene:text-base scene:md:text-lg font-normal text-lg md:text-xl md:leading-9 tracking-px text-body gg-dark:text-neutral-100\"><span style=\"font-weight:400\">\u201cBecause there are no universally-accepted definitions when it comes to what constitutes a crypto-related crime, it is hard to determine whether crypto-crime is significantly more widespread when compared to traditional financial crime, and there is a risk of narrative capture, depending on the agenda of those observing the data,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"font-meta-serif-pro scene:font-noto-sans scene:text-base scene:md:text-lg font-normal text-lg md:text-xl md:leading-9 tracking-px text-body gg-dark:text-neutral-100\"><span style=\"font-weight:400\">\u201cIt would probably be more helpful to look at financial crime in general, and recognize that crypto-related crime plays a significant and growing role, and one that must continue to be managed, as crypto-assets, stablecoins, and tokenized assets enter the mainstream financial markets.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"my-4 border-b border-decryptGridline\">\n<div class=\"text-start p-8 md:py-12 md:px-12 max-w-prose relative\"><span class=\"border-t-4 border-l-4 w-4 h-4 md:border-t-[6px] md:border-l-[6px] md:w-6 md:h-6 border-decryptPurple dark:border-decryptNeon gg-dark:border-cc-pink-2 absolute top-4 left-4 md:top-6 md:left-6\"\/><span class=\"border-t-4 border-l-4 w-4 h-4 md:border-t-[6px] md:border-l-[6px] md:w-6 md:h-6 border-decryptPurple dark:border-decryptNeon gg-dark:border-cc-pink-2 absolute rotate-180 bottom-4 right-4 md:bottom-6 md:right-6\"\/><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"font-akzidenz-grotesk font-bold text-xl md:text-3xl md:text-center gg-dark:text-white\">Daily Debrief<!-- --> Newsletter<\/h3>\n<p>Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In brief Europol said misuse of crypto is \u201cbecoming increasingly sophisticated,\u201d straining national police resources. Experts have called for global standards and unbiased blockchain training to strengthen cross-border investigations. A recent conference highlighted the need for cooperation between public and private sectors as crypto crime evolves. The head of Europol&#8217;s European Financial and Economic Crime [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393207,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[230,225,221,227,226,228,229,60,223,224,222],"class_list":["post-409948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency","tag-brave","tag-coinbase","tag-crypto","tag-decentralised","tag-decentralized","tag-decentralized-exchange","tag-erc-20","tag-featured","tag-meme-coin","tag-robinhood","tag-solana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409948"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":409949,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409948\/revisions\/409949"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}