Office for the U.S. drug enforcement (DEA) announced a significant decline in the use of bitcoin in criminal activities. As noted by the representatives of the Ministry, only 10% of all transactions connected with the crime, while their total volume increased significantly, according to Bloomberg.
As stated DEA special agent Lilita Infante, over the past five years the number of legal bitcoin transaction exceeded illegal.
“The volume [of transactions] has greatly increased their number, including in dollar terms, however, the percentage of [illegal transactions] decreased,” she said.
Such data, said Infante, obtained in the result of the analysis of blockchain data to which the DEA started in 2013 after he drew attention to the increasing use of bitcoin in the cases under investigation.
As of today, she says, only 10% of transactions associated with criminal activities, but mostly bitcoin is used more for speculation.
Lilita Infante also part of a Group on cybercrime investigation in the U.S. Department of justice. The group consists of 10 people and focuses its attention on the darknet and the investigation of the cases related to cryptocurrency.
Allegations that criminals choose bitcoin as an alternative to cash, using it for money laundering and financing of terrorism, already a long time heard from critics of bitcoin. This primarily applies to representatives of Central banks, which regularly repeat the mantra about the “anonymity” of bitcoin.
The last statement is known to be far from the truth, moreover, says Lilita Infante, even if less liquid coins like Monero and zcash for and give more anonymity, her office is able to cope with this challenge.
“The blockchain gives us many tools to identify people. In truth, I wish that they had continued to use the cryptocurrency”, she added.
We will remind, in July the President of the United States Donald trump has signed the decree about creation of the working group, the tasks will be, among other things, the investigation of crimes committed with the use of bitcoin and other digital currencies. Industry of cryptocurrency when it was mentioned in the context of fraud, the fight against which is among the priority tasks faced by US authorities.
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