- Victims of crimes may seek to recover funds confiscated from their cryptocurrency accounts.
- Privacy coins were emphasized in the release as being “detrimental to the public good.”
Authorities in the United Kingdom now have more power to “seize, freeze, and destroy” offenders’ crypto holdings, according to the National Crime Agency (NCA) and police. The country’s law enforcement will be able to confiscate cryptocurrency assets without first making an arrest, according to the new regulations.
A press statement from the United Kingdom’s Home Office states that while investigating a crime, authorities have the authority to confiscate materials such as memory sticks or passwords. If British authorities determine that reintroducing a cryptocurrency into circulation would be harmful to society as a whole, they will also have the authority to remove it from circulation.
Empowering Law Enforcement
As of April 26, part of the new regulations allows law enforcement to move seized crypto to wallets under the authorities control, and victims of crimes may seek to recover funds confiscated from their cryptocurrency accounts.
Moreover, British Home Secretary James Cleverly emphasized that lawbreakers should not benefit financially from their illicit endeavors. Cleverly stated that the additional police powers were justified by crypto fundraising efforts by various parties. The new rules were put in place when a criminal statute was passed by the British parliament in 2023, which allowed for the quick confiscation of crypto.
Privacy coins were emphasized in the release as being “detrimental to the public good.” A much greater degree of anonymity is provided by privacy coins, in contrast to the pseudo-anonymity offered by most cryptocurrencies.
When a wallet address is linked to a person’s identity via processes like Know Your Customer (KYC), it becomes possible to track and identify all transactions performed by that wallet, even while the addresses themselves remain anonymous.
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