The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) currently conducts 130 different investigations related to cryptocurrencies. The actions of American law enforcement officers literally “knocked down” the prices of the cryptocurrency.
According to Bloomberg, referring to the special FBI surveillance agent Kyle Armstrong, the agency investigates many crimes, including human trafficking, drug operations, kidnapping, and extortion, which have a component of the cryptocurrency.
As explained by Armstrong, in recent times the number of such crimes has increased. So, about 10% of drug users around the world buy them online in illegal digital marketplaces.
In some parts of the US, there is also an increase in extortion schemes, where criminals want to use cryptocurrencies.
These types of crimes, to which the FBI has assigned an “increased degree of danger”, represent only a “small scrap” of cases with which he has to work, as explained by the special agent.
“The immutability of the blockchain system greatly simplifies the process of tracking transactions, in contrast to crimes where cash is used. But at the same time, the anonymity and pseudo-anonymity of the cryptocurrency seriously complicate the investigation of such crimes, “Mr. Armstrong said.
The day before it became known that the government of the United States is preparing to withdraw 4 thousand bitcoins from detained drug traffickers who were engaged in illegal activities in Darknet. If the court gives consent to the confiscation of crypto assets of the drug dealers, this will significantly replenish the US crypto reserve. However, according to the American “tradition”, the authorities will then sell the bitcoins at an auction.
Recall that last year the US Department of Justice published a report on the work to fight drug trafficking, which, among other things, included a section on cryptocurrencies. It noted that money obtained illegally is often laundered through trade operations with bitcoins through the intermediation of companies from China.
On such news, bitcoin again rushed down, falling below the $ 6,000 mark reached earlier.
According to the portal CoinMarketCap, which calculates the average price for more than 20 exchanges, as of 5:14 UTC, bitcoin went down by 4.28% to 5.853 thousand dollars.
At the largest on the volume of trades in the Binance exchange, bitcoin was down 4.59% to 5.82 thousand dollars.
Other cryptocurrencies also become cheaper. Thus, Ethereum already lost 4.53% and is valued at 414.73 dollars, Ripple lost 4.7% to $ 0.44. Bitcoin Cash declined by 7.5% and is trading at $ 655.24.
According to CoinMarketCap, the market capitalization of cryptocurrencies is currently 233.7 billion dollars. Bitcoin has about 42.8% of the entire market of cryptocurrencies.
However, not everything is so bad: the sensational news of the week was the decision of Facebook to reconsider its position regarding the advertising of cryptocurrency on its site. So, the company intends to allow advertising of electronic money.
It seems that this will return to the cryptocurrency projects the opportunity to embrace a large group of people who, perhaps, can become their potential clients. And this, in turn, can serve as a positive impetus for the growth of the price of the cryptocurrency.
