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A âflippeningâ in criminal use of cryptocurrencies has occurred over the past five years, the US DEA has revealed.
An agent of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has noted that Bitcoinâs (BTC) role in crimes has dropped to just 10 percent of transactions, while transactions themselves have âgrown tremendously,â Bloomberg reports August 7.
In an interview, DEA special agent Lilita Infante â who is a member of the 10-person Cyber Investigative Task Force â said that the ratio of legitimate to illegitimate Bitcoin transactions had flipped over the past five years, noting
âThe volume has grown tremendously, the amount of transactions and the dollar value has grown tremendously over the years in criminal activity, but the ratio has decreased.â
The concept of criminals turning to cryptocurrency as an alternative to cash has traditionally formed a central argument used by those critical of Bitcoinâs future.
Regulators too have set about tackling the perceived usage of cryptocurrency for illicit purposes, often associated with terrorism and money laundering.
As Bitcoinâs popularity has grown, however, it is now legitimate trading which forms the overwhelming majority of activity, with Infante noting that the âmajority of transactions are used for price speculation.â
She added that although privacy-focused altcoins are less liquid and more anonymous than BTC, the DEA âstill has ways of trackingâ currencies such as Monero and Zcash. Infante concluded,
âThe blockchain actually gives us a lot of tools to be able to identify people. I actually want them to keep using them [cryptocurrencies].ââ
At a U.S. House public meeting on digital assets in mid-July, Andreessen Horowitz managing partner Scott Kupor suggested that âBitcoin is law enforcementâs best friendâ due to the ability to track illicit transactions on the blockchain.
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