CryptoACTION: Combating CRYPTOcurrency-Facilitated Crime and Terrorism with Interoperable, Trustworthy, AI-Enhanced, Collaborative Tools, and Improved Information Sharing, Operations, and Training for LEAs
(Funding project: Tracing of cryptocurrencies transactions related to criminal purposes)
Background:
The advent of cryptocurrencies unlocked opportunities for legitimate innovation but at the same time offered a new platform for facilitating criminal and terrorist activities, offering a degree of perceived anonymity and freedom from centralised control and oversight. Law-enforcement agencies (LEAs) face significant challenges in adjusting to the quickly evolving technological developments and emerging applications of cryptocurrencies, cross-border transactions further compounding these challenges. At the same time, legislation in different countries lacks harmonisation and still plays catch-up to the technological developments. Inescapably, to be effective, the response to the emerging (possibly cross-border) cryptocurrency-facilitated criminal/terrorist (CFCT) activities must match their characteristics, i.e. it must evolve continuously both in terms of technology and in terms of operational guidelines and training; moreover it must foster collaboration across international borders and across the different stakeholders on the side of the law (LEAs, regulators, law makers, legitimate cryptocurrency ecosystem and financial sector actors, telecommunication and technology market actors, etc.) and possibly lead to strategic regulatory steps.
The project will focus on:
🔹 Conducting an interdisciplinary analysis of emerging trends in crypto-enabled crime and terrorism, and the current regulatory landscape
🔹 Developing AI-enhanced, interoperable tools for lawful detection, investigation, and fund tracing
🔹 Building an international federated anti-CFCT dataspace to strengthen global cooperation with Europol, Interpol, regulators, and lawful stakeholders
🔹 Establishing the world’s first “cryptorange” and creating advanced training curricula for LEAs, prosecutors, and judicial authorities
🔹 Co-designing tools, benchmarks, and regulatory recommendations with international law-enforcement partners
🔹 Fostering long-term collaboration between academia, industry, and government bodies in combating CFCT activities.