NCA Crypto Unit Targets Digital Asset Fraud

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The value of bitcoin and ether plunged to record lows in 2022, contributing to the increase in crypto crime.

As law enforcement ramps up in the crypto arena, the UK’s top crime-fighting agency is establishing a new unit to target crypto criminals.

Five officers will be assigned a “proactive cryptocurrency remit” by the National Crime Agency. Crypto assets are receiving “increased focus,” a spokesperson told Financial News.

NCA is seeking officers with expertise in the sector to join a “new project that will form a specialized cryptocurrency and virtual assets team ”.

Fraud, money laundering, and illicit transactions have long been criticized in crypto, but crime surged last year.

A third of the amount lost to crypto fraud in the UK was lost in 2022, according to Action Fraud. In the year ended 30 September, scammers stole £226 million from investors

As incoming FCA chair, Ashley Alder told MPs in December, crypto companies were “deliberately evasive”, facilitated money laundering, and created “massively untoward risk”.

Cryptocurrencies have been called the “new front line” of criminal scams by Governor Andrew Bailey.

The government, however, embraced the sector in 2022. A year ago, then-chancellor Rishi Sunak envisioned the UK as a crypto hub. 

Towards the end of the year, MPs passed a bill giving the FCA more power.

A collapse in cryptocurrency values led to several high-profile corporate failures across the industry, including the crypto exchange FTX in November.

In its own annual report, published on 19 July, the NCA listed crypto assets as a factor harming the UK economy.

NCA manager Chris Lewis-Evans says the team will protect the UK from cybercrime.

“Cryptocurrency and virtual assets are widely viewed as specialist areas of knowledge and [the new roles are] key to supporting NCA investigations in which these are used to enable serious criminality.”

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