Every police force in the UK is trained to investigate crimes around cryptocurrency and potentially seize it.
Detective chief superintendent Andy Gould, the head of the UK’s National Police Chiefs’ Council, told Parliament that £100 million had been spent over the last four years to create “cryptocurrency tactical advisers across the whole of policing”.
Gould, the NPCC national cyber crime programme lead and an Interpol global cybercrime expert, was speaking during a parliamentary debate on the UK Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill.
He said that forces do not, however, have the capacity to address economic crimes involving crypto.
“There are now officers in every force and every regional organised crime unit who are trained and equipped [to investigate crime involving cryptocurrencies],” Gould said.
“We have nationally procured the investigative tools to enable them to progress the investigations, and we have a national storage platform to store that once we have seized it.
“We are in a position where we have actually seized hundreds of millions of pounds worth of cryptocurrency assets within the last year or so. The challenge we have is that it is getting harder and harder to do.
“The assets themselves are becoming more diverse and more technically complex, so our officers are in a bit of an arms race trying to keep up.”
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Cryptocurrency shorts
Switzerland-based distributed ledger interoperability protocol developer, QPQ AG, has announced a $100m investment commitment from GEM Digital Limited, a Bahamas-based digital asset investment firm.
Exclusible has raised $5m led by FC Basel co-owner Dan Holzmann and Tioga Capital for a platform to digitalise products and launch NFT collections. Clients include Asprey Bugatti, Christian Lacroix, Frederique Constant and Louis Monet.
Bitcoin derivatives exchange Kollider has closed a $2.4m seed funding round led by Lemniscap and featuring Castle Island Ventures, Polychain Capital, Alameda Ventures, Pfeffer Capital and Okex. It will add more Lightning-native financial tools to its product lineup.
Credit reporting company Equifax – which rose to worldwide fame during a huge data breach – has partnered with blockchain company Oasis Labs to build a know-your-customer solution.
Asset management firm Stone Ridge, the parent company of NYDIG, has launched an eight-week startup accelerator focused on the Bitcoin Lightning Network and Taro protocol. In Wolf’s Clothing will pay for global teams to take part in the New York City programme four times a year, starting next April, with guaranteed investment of $250,000 and a further $500,000 for one victorious team following a pitching event.
Singapore’s regulators have warned of the hazards of speculating in cryptocurrencies following the collapse of Three Arrows Capital and Voyager Digital. The city-state has proposed restricting retail investors from borrowing money or using credit cards to buy cryptocurrencies and from lending out their digital tokens in search of yields.
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Crypto prices
The overall market cap of the 21,500 coins is at $1 trillion at the time of writing (7am UK), a 3.3% increase in the last 24 hours.
For round-ups of recent cryptocurrency news developments, click here.
For valuations of the top 100 coins by market cap in US dollars, plus 24-hour price change, see below.