The United States Federal Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) says criminal activity via cryptocurrencies has fallen sharply in the last five years. While bitcoin transactions are rising sharply, the currency of Nakamoto used by some criminals now only accounts for one-tenth of these transactions.
Volume going up and ratio going down
We remember the statement of a former US federal prosecutor. This federal prosecutor, Mary Beth Buchanan, defended cryptocurrencies at a conference in the Netherlands and stressed that it was time to get rid of negative and harmful connotations around the crypto sphere.
Thus, it should be clear to most of the cryptos skeptical. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a number gives a clear and precise idea: five years ago, in 2013, 90% of transactions made via bitcoin involved a criminal activity behind. Today, in 2018, this figure has fallen to 10%
.
In an interview with US media Bloomberg, a DEA official, Lilita Infante, argued that this does not mean that fewer criminals use bitcoin to fund illegal activities, but rather that the volume of criminal transactions has increased significantly. which dropped the ratio. According to this employee, cryptocurrencies have become a more traditional asset class. The real illegal activity then became speculation.
She notes that :
“Regarding illicit activities, the volume, the number of transactions, but also the value in the dollar have increased considerably in recent years, but the ratio, it has decreased. The bulk of the transactions are now used to speculate. “
āCriminals should keep on using Blockchain!ā
The change then took place and pointing fingers speculators and not criminals, it is good to ask who are really the wrongdoers? Activity on the black market has also continued to increase, but at a slower pace than the enthusiasm of crowds for cryptocurrencies. Given this very strong growth, the US law enforcement agencies have for some time developed more knowledge about the blockchain and now know how to use it to detect cases of money laundering and trafficking of any kind.
The DEA employee argued that police forces are now extremely knowledgeable and have large amounts of information and sources to “always be able to trace certain transactions“. Moreover, she adds that at present “the majority of criminal transactions are happening on the public Bitcoin blockchain“.
” In fact, the blockchain provides us with many opportunities to identify people. Actually, I wish the criminals continue to use it ” she said in the interview.
A little further north, in Canada exactly, a Quebec government scientist, RĆ©mi Quirion, points out that cryptos are not synonymous with criminal activity. “Bitcoin is not above the law and is not a point of gravity for anything that is illegal: this famous currency is only a tiny part of the financing of illegal activities in general. The reason: BTC is much less interesting for anyone wishing to make transactions and remain completely anonymous “.
