2009 saw the launch of the first-ever cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, a form of “digital money” founded on a concept called the “blockchain” – an immutable, pseudo-anonymous and cryptographically secured record of transactions kept on a decentralised network.

A decade and a half later, cryptocurrencies are a significant reality in the modern financial world. There are now approximately 20,000 cryptocurrencies in existence with a total market capitalisation of $3.93 trillion. Their key feature seems to be that they do not require any interface with the “real-world” banking system, allowing anyone with a device capable of accessing the internet the ability to exchange value or pay for goods or services with apparent anonymity, from anywhere in the world.

They evolve rapidly and have a number of attributes making them attractive as a payment method to criminals as well as law-abiding citizens. These are the ability to instantaneously transcend national borders while providing anonymity and security due to high-level encryption.The anonymous and decentralised nature of cryptocurrencies has, therefore, turned them into a serious threat, widely open to exploitation for nefarious purposes by criminals who often are early adopters of new technologies.

They therefore present complicated challenges for governments, institutions and law enforcement agencies, having been linked, inter alia, to crimes related to terrorism, corporate espionage, pornography, sanctions evasion, human trafficking, illegal narcotics and weapons smuggling.

This research sets out to demonstrate that, while there is a clear interface between nascent technology like cryptocurrency and criminal utilisation of cutting-edge technology-based applications (as exemplified by ransomware attacks), it is simply the newest vehicle to be adopted to carry out age-old crimes such as extortion and money-laundering. As such it is not to be feared; however, ironically, it also cannot be met with the same outdated and traditional approaches adopted to counter the older types of crime.