The US Department of Justice announced on Wednesday that it had set up a new "national encrypted currency enforcement team" to combat "the crime of misuse of encrypted currency".
The new department will investigate and prosecute money laundering and the use of digital currencies such as bitcoin in racketeering software attacks. In 2020 alone, there were nearly 400 such attacks in the United States, extorting millions of dollars from institutions such as hospitals and local governments, according to Temple University. In such cases, hackers usually encrypt the victim's data and demand a ransom.
Lisa Monaco, deputy attorney general, said on Wednesday that the goal of the new department was to "strengthen our ability to destroy such financial entities that enable criminals to abuse and profit from encrypted currency platforms".
"We want to strengthen our ability to destroy this profitable ecosystem that allows these criminals to run rampant and profit from what they are doing," Monaco said. We need to concentrate our efforts and further develop on the basis of existing expertise. "