Cryptocurrencies were listed for the first time as a means to launder and transfer money related to the drug trade by the China Ministry of Public Security on Thursday.
According to the China Drug Crime Report 2021, police solved 5,000 drug trafficking cases involving online transactions last year, or about 9.2% of all the drug-related cases.
“The circulation of drug funds has expanded from online bank transfers to cryptocurrency and in-game currency,” the report said.
In mid-2020, the Hangzhou Intermediate People’s Court published a verdict that an executive with a Chinese e-commerce platform used Bitcoin to buy methamphetamine on the dark web in 2018, according to a Chinese media report.
A research report in January showed that despite China’s ban on cryptocurrencies, 5,137 criminal cases involving crypto were registered in 2021.
The amount of cryptocurrency used in money laundering activities increased by 30% in 2021 from a year earlier, according to a crypto money laundering report by Chainalysis.
The police report coincides with increasing anti-crypto rhetoric by China, which is pushing for wider adoption of its own central bank digital currency (CBDC).
