An official from the Office of the Attorney General has said the United States government is going to take a more active role in enforcement action against actors using cryptocurrencies for money laundering and other cybercrimes.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the Aspen Institute Cyber Summit on Wednesday, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said the Justice Department had launched the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, an initiative aimed at going after platforms \u201cthat help criminals launder or hide their criminal proceeds.\u201d Monaco cited her office\u2019s work against Darknet-based Bitcoin (BTC) mixing service Helix in August but said the U.S. government should be doing more.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to strengthen our capacity to dismantle the financial ecosystem that enables these criminal actors to flourish and \u2014 quite frankly \u2014 to profit from what they\u2019re doing,\u201d said Monaco. \u201cWe\u2019re going to do that by drawing on our cyber experts and cyber prosecutors and money-laundering experts.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added:<\/p>\n
\u201cCryptocurrency exchanges want to be the banks of the future. We need to make sure that folks can have confidence when they\u2019re using these systems, and we need to make sure we\u2019re poised to root out abuse that can take hold on them.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n