UK NCA warns criminals are "innovatively" using crypto assets to launder money
According to Decrypt, the UK National Economic Crime Centre (NECC) stated in its annual report that criminals are "innovatively" leveraging crypto asset products to evade detection and transfer illicit funds at scale, while also highlighting AI alongside cryptocurrencies as an emerging threat method. Crypto assets have been ranked third among the nine priority economic crime areas jointly designated by NECC, the FCA, and the Treasury. NECC stated it will build more proactive, intelligence-driven crypto capabilities to actively identify targets for enforcement action. Previously, the NCA, in collaboration with the US Secret Service, Coinbase, Binance, Kraken, and Tether, conducted "Operation Atlantic," which identified 20,000 phishing attack victims and resulted in the freezing of $12 million in assets this March.
