The US Department of Justice (DoJ) released a new report in which it has asked for international cooperation from the global community, so they can deal with the criminal element in the crypto space. According to the DoJ, it is also willing to assist other nations in developing the infrastructure required for combating the rising number of crypto crimes.

Global Cooperation for Crypto Crimes

The Department of Justice will give recommendations that will address a number of issues, such as how to combat cybercrime and deal with the various issues associated with it. In fact, they have also said that standard global regulations should be developed for the crypto industry.

Back in March 2022, US President Joe Biden had signed an Executive Order and a response was given by the DoJ. The report that they released was aimed at strengthening the cooperation between law enforcement authorities that can help them in identifying, probing and then prosecuting crypto-related criminal activity.

The Department of Justice had partnered with several federal agencies for releasing the report. These included the State Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Department of Homeland Security, the Treasury Department as well as the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

It was clarified in the report that the United States wants to support and develop digital assets in a responsible manner. But, it did assert that the anonymity that cryptocurrencies have to offer have made them a popular tool of choice of criminals in a number of illicit activities. These include fraud, money laundering, terrorism financing and sanction evasion.

Moreover, the fact that cryptocurrencies are mostly unregulated is another aspect that criminals are exploiting. As there are some global jurisdictions that do not have robust regulatory standards, they are being used by these criminals and this leaves the US financial system and others exposed to risks.

Binance Gets Accused of Criminal Activities

This report from the Department of Justice came not long after a report from Reuters said that Binance had facilitated transactions of money laundering for organized crime. According to the report, the world’s largest crypto exchange in trading volume had also assisted hackers from North Korea and even Russian drug dealers in conducting illicit transactions. It said that almost $2.35 billion worth of transactions processed by Binance since 2018 had involved illegal activities.

The DoJ said in its report that monitoring the crypto sector had become difficult because the criminals that are involved take advantage of ‘judicial arbitrage’. Therefore, it believes that the global community needs to come together in order to monitor and control these criminal activities in the crypto sector. It was further recommended that cross-border cooperation should also be encouraged because it can help in developing the infrastructure that is required for launching complex and specialized investigations in criminal activities related to digital assets.

With the criminal activity rising in the crypto sector, it is not surprising that US authorities and others are becoming concerned about this issue.