Cryptocurrency and criminality

Abstract

Bitcoin has become the currency of choice for cybercriminals. Its distinctive characteristics of decentralisation and pseudo-anonymity are also attractive to criminal actors in general, and yet Bitcoin has been assessed as representing only a low money laundering risk. In many respects, cryptocurrencies are still viewed as an unfamiliar, marginal phenomenon restricted to the purview of specialists. This article seeks: to demystify the Bitcoin concept; to demonstrate that, far from being low-risk, Bitcoin constitutes a substantial danger in terms of criminal enterprise; and to promote the case for greater awareness among criminal justice professionals and law enforcement officers in particular.