Almost $13 million worth of BTC was sold at auction in 2016 by the Australian police.
In 2020, the number of reports increased by 67%, reaching 9,689.
It is generally agreed that adoption and regulations go hand in hand.
Even as law enforcement was growing acquainted with the concept of cybercrime, a new chapter opened up with the advent of crypto-related criminal activity. In the previous several years, there has been a slew of arrests related to the cryptocurrency sector.
According to the Australian Federal Police (AFP), crypto-related crimes will continue to rise as the sector gains prominence. As a result, the police department established a dedicated squad to deal with the sector’s unique problems.
Rise in Scams and Hacks
An increase in cryptocurrency-related crimes has been seen, according to Stefan Jerga, the man in charge of AFP’s procedure of collecting criminal assets.
As the cryptocurrency market has grown, so too has the prevalence of scams and hacks. Both the market value and the attention paid to cryptocurrencies have skyrocketed. For the same reason, thieves have recently attacked a number of Crypto firms.
Almost $13 million worth of Bitcoin was sold at auction in 2016 by the Australian police. Remember that in 2020, the AFP set up a criminal confiscation command. Once the task team got going, they were able to get back the $600 million that had been looted.
According to Jerga, the rising volume of crypto-related crimes prompted AFP to take the current action. He also mentioned that this squad will undergo progress in the future.
In 2018, there were 5,011 reported instances of crypto-related crime. In 2020, the number of reports increased by 67%, reaching 9,689. Subsequently, the incidence of crypto crime in Australia increased by an astounding 172% after the epidemic.