Specialised unit of Interpol has been set up to clamp down illegal digital assets

Following a string of attacks that shook the digital market industry, the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) established a specialised section to combat virtual asset crime worldwide.

Interpol made the announcement at a news conference held in advance of its 90th general assembly, which will took place from October 19–21 in Delhi, India. The policing of virtual currencies was a major topic of discussion at the meeting, which was attended by senior police chiefs from its 195 member nations.

Huge changes in technology, internet of everything, and digitalisation because of cryptocurrencies offer a challenge to law enforcement, because agencies are not adequately trained and better equipped from the beginning as emphasised by Jürgen Stock, Interpol's Secretary General.

Law enforcement agencies throughout the world have been troubled by the decentralised structure of digital assets and their capacity to evade current Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) policies. Decentralised exchanges have made it more difficult for security agencies to find unscrupulous actors, which is another problem.

The way to avoid the mess that Interpol is currently in is by "international cooperation, coordination, trust, and real-time exchange of information," according to Praveen Sinha, Special Director of India's Central Bureau of Investigations. In order to accomplish this, a specialised task force made up of member nations will be established to oversee the virtual assets market globally.

With the issuance of a "red notice" against Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon, Interpol has already dabbled in the ecosystem in the pursuit of digital asset fugitives. Ignatova Rajatova, the creator of OneCoin who defrauded investors of billions of dollars between 2015 and 2017, was the target of a huge manhunt that included Interpol.

The global law enforcement organization also collaborated with Trend Micro, a cybersecurity company, to stop hacker activity in Southeast Asia, and S2W Lab, a research organisation, to monitor virtual asset activity on the dark web.

Other governments are creating specific organisations to control virtual currency. Regulators from around the world are realising that specialised teams may be essential to comprehending and managing the digital assets sector.

In the light of this decisions, the United States National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET) was established by the Department of Justice (DOJ), and Eun Young Choi was named as its first director.

The focus of the department's efforts to combat the rise in criminality employing these technologies will be the NCET, according to Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. of the DOJ's Criminal Division.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) made the announcement that it would expand the newly named Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit to 50 dedicated positions in order to better understand the environment. We would watch out for the new Cryto Asset Cyber Units if they will be able to police wrongdoing in the crypto markets.