The UK’s National Economic Crime Centre said in its annual report this week that criminals are "innovatively using cryptoasset products to evade detection and move illicit value at scale," according to Decrypt. The agency, which sits within the National Crime Agency, said cross-border money laundering networks are spreading and increasingly combine newer techniques with traditional methods while moving funds through both legitimate and illicit channels. It also said many organized crime groups no longer launder money themselves, instead paying specialist networks to do it. The report placed cryptoassets third among nine UK economic crime priorities set in July 2025 by the NECC, the Financial Conduct Authority, the Home Office and HM Treasury, ranking above cash-based crime and money mules. The agency said it is building a "more proactive, intelligence-led cryptoasset capability." It also linked cryptoassets with artificial intelligence in its threat assessment, citing the use of synthetic identities and process automation in attacks on banks. The report added that Operation Atlantic, carried out with the U.S. Secret Service, Coinbase, Binance, Kraken and Tether, identified 20,000 authorized push payment fraud victims and froze $12 million. A separate case, Operation Destabilise, led to 129 arrests and seizures of more than £25 million in the UK.

Britain’s National Economic Crime Centre said in its annual report this week that criminals are making “innovative use of crypto asset products to evade detection and move illicit value at scale.” The warning appeared in a threat assessment describing cross-border laundering networks that combine new and traditional methods and move money through both licit and illicit channels. The agency also said many organized crime groups now outsource laundering to specialist networks for a fee, instead of handling it themselves. The report says cryptoassets now rank third among nine economic crime priorities agreed by the NECC, the Financial Conduct Authority, the Home Office and HM Treasury, and published in July 2025. That places crypto above criminal cash and money mules in the framework used to direct compliance focus at regulated firms. The NECC also said it is building “a more proactive and intelligence-led crypto capability,” though it did not explain what that will look like in practice. The report highlighted two enforcement efforts. Operation Atlantic, run over one week at National Crime Agency headquarters with the U.S. Secret Service, Coinbase, Binance, Kraken and Tether, identified 20,000 approval-phishing victims and froze $12 million in March. Operation Destabilise, targeting Russian-speaking networks that convert street cash into crypto, has now reached 129 arrests and more than £25 million seized in the UK.

A joint operation by Ghana's EOCO, UK NCA, Europol, and OKX seized 119.4 BTC, 93 ETH, and 2.85M USDT worth $15.1 million from a crypto investment scam, with proceeds liquidated for victim restitution.