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24 May 2024 / Nick Barnard
Issue: 8072 / Categories: Features , Profession , Crypto , Cyber , Cybercrime , Technology
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Crime fighters put cryptoassets in their sights

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Criminals love them, but now enforcement agencies have the statutory tools to fight back, writes Nick Barnard
  • On 26 April 2024, amendments to the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 came into force, giving law enforcement new tools to freeze, seize or even destroy cryptoassets.
  • Explains crypto-wallet freezing orders and crypto-wallet forfeiture orders.
  • The new orders are based on the Account Freezing Order regime.

Since their ascent to mainstream attention over the past decade, cryptoassets have proved a vexed challenge for law enforcement agencies (LEAs), particularly those charged with disrupting money-laundering and recovering the proceeds of crime.

Unlike cash (which exists only in physical form) or funds in bank accounts (which are controlled by a regulated third party with established law as to ownership and location), cryptoassets represent a new form of liquid digital value, which can be held and transferred in entirely new ways.

As a starting point, the infrastructure of cryptoassets generally makes no provision for recording or enforcing the ‘owner’ of

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