According to the Dutch prosecutor’s office, during 2020, the country’s authorities confiscated cryptocurrencies worth about 8 million euros from criminals. In 2019, the amount of confiscations was 1.1 million euros.
Prosecutor Anita van Dis said that in 2020, funds in the amount of € 303 million were seized from criminals. Of this number, 8 million euros were in cryptocurrencies. This is almost eight times higher than in 2019, during which Dutch law enforcement authorities seized 1.1 million euros worth of cryptocurrencies.
In part, such a sharp increase in this indicator can be explained by the confiscation of several addresses belonging to the “whales” who store a large number of cryptocurrencies. At the same time, van Dis noted that recently there has been a sharp increase in crimes in the country, for the commission of which cryptocurrencies are used. Nevertheless, judging by the above figures, cybercriminals still prefer fiat money.
Unlike other countries, whose authorities keep seized cryptoassets pending a court decision, the Dutch prosecutor’s office immediately converts them into euros. The prosecutor’s office applies a similar approach to fiat currencies, be it US dollars or pounds sterling. The Dutch prosecutor’s office explained that it does not want to create the impression that it is speculating in “criminal” assets. For example, the United States and the United Kingdom practice the open sale of seized cryptocurrencies. Since 2014, the US authorities have sold 185,230 BTC at auctions.
The Netherlands is unnecessarily tightening control over the cryptocurrency industry. Last year, the Dutch Ministry of Finance proposed setting additional fees for digital asset firms. However, many firms began to express dissatisfaction that the proposed fees were in excess of the amounts required by the European Union’s Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD5).
The Netherlands’ central bank later demanded that local cryptocurrency exchanges implement additional measures to verify the identity of users.
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