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Payments made using cryptocurrency to groups suspected of running human trafficking operations increased by 85% during 2025, with investigators tracing hundreds of millions of dollars in activity across public blockchain networks, according to new research released by Chainalysis. The U.S.-based blockchain intelligence company reported that the majority of this activity was tied to a rapidly growing criminal infrastructure centered in Southeast Asia, where scam compounds, ill

The European Union is considering a sweeping prohibition on all cryptocurrency transactions involving Russia as part of efforts to restrict Moscow’s ability to use digital assets to bypass existing sanctions, according to a document obtained by FT. The proposed measures would specifically target efforts to prevent sanctioned Russian crypto infrastructure from re-emerging under new guises. Officials are seeking to block "copycat Russian crypto entities spun out of already sanc

United States federal prosecutors have secured a twenty-year prison sentence against Daren Li after his conviction for laundering more than 73 million dollars connected to a vast international cryptocurrency investment fraud operation. Li, a dual national of China and St. Kitts and Nevis, received the maximum penalty allowed by law after admitting to organizing a sophisticated financial structure designed to process criminal proceeds. Despite the sentencing, Li is currently a

Russia’s largest lender, Sberbank, is moving closer to launching loans secured by cryptocurrency and said on Friday that it is ready to work alongside the country’s central bank to help develop the regulatory framework required for such products, according to Reuters. The bank has already carried out an initial test of the model, having issued the country’s first bitcoin-backed loan in January to one of Russia’s largest bitcoin mining firms, IntelionData. Sberbank described t

A dramatic selloff in ether this week turned an aggressively bullish wager into a costly unraveling for Trend Research, a trading firm led by Liquid Capital founder Jack Yi, after ETH prices plunged below the $2,000 mark.   Trend Research had spent months constructing a massive long position in ether valued at roughly $2 billion. The strategy relied on a high-risk “looped” structure: the firm deposited ether as collateral on the DeFi lending protocol Aave, borrowed stablecoin

Law enforcement agencies across Wyoming are raising urgent concerns after residents lost more than $3 million to cryptocurrency ATM scams in 2025 alone. In response, State Representative Ken Clouston is leading a legislative effort to place these automated kiosks under the direct supervision of the Wyoming Division of Banking. The proposal comes amid a sharp national increase in fraud tied to crypto kiosks, with federal data showing losses exceeding $333 million last year. Au

New research from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis has identified specialised underground groups linked to Chinese money laundering operations that processed more than $16.1bn in transaction volume during the 2025 calendar year.   According to the findings, these networks handled an average of roughly $44m per day and relied on at least 1,799 active digital wallet addresses to sustain their activity.   Chainalysis said the growth of these organisations has dramatically o

A specialist money launderer who played a central role in supporting fugitive cryptocurrency fraudster Zhimin Qian has been ordered to repay £5,603,305.81 or face an extended prison term. Seng Hok Ling was sentenced to four years and eleven months in November 2025 after admitting involvement in a sophisticated criminal enterprise. On the same day, the primary defendant, Zhimin Qian, received a sentence of eleven years and eight months for her leadership of the conspiracy. The

The Korea Customs Service has successfully dismantled a major criminal network that laundered 148.9 billion won through unauthorized digital asset transfers, authorities confirmed. Investigations revealed that three Chinese nationals orchestrated the elaborate scheme by exploiting domestic bank accounts and international cryptocurrency platforms between September 2021 and June of the previous year. The suspects have been referred to the prosecution for serious violations of t

Cambodian authorities arrested Prince TCO founder Chen Zhi in January 2026 after the United States Department of Justice connected him to what it described as a vast worldwide fraud empire, a dramatic enforcement move that followed an indictment for wire fraud and the laundering of digital assets valued at 15 billion dollars. Investigators have portrayed Chen as the chief strategist behind an enormous criminal enterprise that relied on forced labor to swindle victims across m

Nigeria has embarked on a sweeping overhaul of how digital assets are monitored, embedding national identification numbers directly into crypto systems to strip away the anonymity that once protected bad actors. The push arrives alongside the Nigeria Tax Administration Act 2025, which compels every virtual-asset transaction to be tied to a verified, real-world identity. By synchronizing its domestic rules with the global crypto-asset reporting framework, the government intend

Indian authorities have successfully brought 49 virtual digital asset service providers into the country’s formal financial reporting system during the ongoing fiscal year, marking a decisive step in tightening oversight of the cryptocurrency sector. This development follows an intensive compliance drive led by the Financial Intelligence Unit, aimed at ensuring that all crypto-related platforms function within the framework of existing transparency and anti–money laundering l