FinCEN names misuse of cryptocurrencies a national priority – regulation Bitcoin News

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has made “Cybercrime, including relevant aspects of cybersecurity and virtual currencies” a national priority. The Treasury Department is particularly concerned about “the misuse of virtual assets that exploits and undermines their innovative potential, including by laundering illegal revenues”.

FinCEN, an office of the US Treasury Department, published its “National Priorities for Combating Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing” last week.

One of the priorities listed is “Cybercrime, including relevant aspects of cybersecurity and virtual currencies”. The document details:

The Treasury Department is particularly concerned about cyber-assisted financial crime, ransomware attacks, and the misuse of virtual assets that exploit and undermine their innovation potential, including through laundering of illicit revenue.

The document adds that “combating ransomware has been identified as a top priority for the United States”. Strategies that have been developed to combat ransomware attacks include “enabling quick tracking and blocking of virtual currency revenue,” the document says.

FinCEN wrote that Convertible Virtual Currencies (CVCs) “have grown as the currency of choice for a wide variety of illegal online activities”.

The office stated, “Criminals use a variety of techniques to disguise the source of illicit funds when conducting transactions with CVCs, including the use of mixers and tumblers.”

In June, President Joe Biden issued an order to federal agencies to prioritize efforts to fight global corruption and the focus was on cryptocurrency. The Biden administration also unveiled their ransomware fight strategy, which included expanding cryptocurrency analysis to find criminal transactions.

What do you think of FinCEN making cryptocurrency abuse a national priority? Let us know in the comment section below.

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