Cryptocurrencies are spawning a new generation of private eyes

FOR THE criminally minded, the attract of cryptocurrencies is straightforward to understand. Decentralised on-line ledgers referred to as blockchains permit digital belongings, within the type of “tokens”, to be moved with out monetary establishments monitoring what is going on for indicators of money-laundering or different wrongdoing. Chainalysis, a crypto-investigations agency in New York, tallied greater than $53bn in suspected crypto-laundering in 2022-23, practically double its estimate for the earlier two years. Nicholas Good of the Dubai workplace of Amsterdam-based Crystal Intelligence, one other investigator, quips that with blockchains, “Anybody can develop into a financial institution.”