on the crypto
As it is known, there are many fears about cryptocurrencies connected to their being an ideal tool for the criminal economy. According to many authoritative voices in the financial world, their search for anonymity would perfectly suit the needs of those who want to perhaps clean up capital of dubious origin, or give life to transactions related to illegal trafficking or terrorism. Opinions that are often opposed by personalities from the academic world, but which are confirmed in some facts to be taken into due consideration, starting from the fact that many Dark Web they see payments made in virtual currencies.
Supervisors have doubled the investigation of digital coins
As yet another confirmation of the suspicions weighing on digital assets, news has recently arrived according to which over the past year, checks and inspections would more than double on them by national supervisors. To give it was theFinancial Information Unit (UIF), a body established in 2008 within the Bank of Italy in accordance with international rules and criteria, which provide in each State for the presence of a Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) with full operational and management autonomy, which it has the fundamental function of coordinating anti-money laundering and terrorist financing activities. The 2018 annual report published at the beginning of the summer, in fact, it signaled the dizzying increase in the number of reports relating to suspicious transactions, with an overall amount that went close to share 100 million euro.
Another interesting fact is that relating to the counterparties involved in the transactions examined, about a hundred exchanges, among which, however, 9% of the amounts exchanged would be concentrated in just 77 of them.
These are not always suspicious transactions
If at first glance the data would seem to confirm the fears mentioned at the beginning, however, another data should be underlined, that relating to the fact that in most cases the report was not based on a precise and circumstantial suspicion of money laundering or terrorist financing, but rather on profiles deriving rather from the uncertainty connected to the scarce or even missing legal regulation of the matter. The same UIF also found that in several reports the reasons for suspicion were attributable to the connection with criminal offenses, such as the re-use of the proceeds of undeclared commercial activities, phishing, attempts to pyramid schemes, trades set on cloned cards, scams or fraud IT and ransomware, or the online extortion that sees the request for redemption in cryptocurrencies.
The FCA confirms the trend
A trend linked to the increase in investigations related to suspicious activities involving cryptocurrencies, which is confirmed by the data collected by the London law firm Pinsent Masons, according to which the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority), the UK's leading financial regulatory body, would have investigated 87 cases in the past year. In 2018 they were 50, with a then increase of 74%. The same study welcomed the news, stating that this approach allows the elimination of bad subjects from the market, thus contributing to its transparency and, consequently, to its growth.
