Suspicious Transactions and Crypto Related Crimes Reach an All Time High in Germany

Germany’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) has unveiled a record surge in crypto-related crimes since last year. They highlighted that although the overall Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) have come down, crypto crimes are on the rise.

In its recent 2024 annual report published on 10 June 2025 in Cologne, Germany’s FIU disclosed that 8711 suspicious crypto activity-related notifications were submitted in 2024. This indicates an increase of approximately 8.2% from the previous year (8,049 suspicious crypto activity-related notifications submitted in 2023).

The increased crypto-related crimes occurred even though the reported SARs are on the decline after the issuance of new guidelines by the agency that filtered out irrelevant reports, as per an article published by Bloomberg.

FIU’s report also mentions that the majority of the flagged fraudulent transactions involved Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether, and Litecoin, linking them to mixing services, online gambling, and trading platforms.

Furthermore, the agency has acknowledged the use of these tokens for transactions that obscured their origins to hide illegal funds, marking an increased role of digital assets in money laundering schemes.

The FIU’s report on the rise of crypto crimes follows a similar report by the FBI, which revealed a significant increase in crypto-related crimes during 2024.

Criminals use cryptocurrency mixers, also known as tumblers, to launder illicit funds. International criminal organizations such as the Lazarus Group use the CoinJoin mixing protocol to launder millions of dollars in stolen cryptocurrency.https://t.co/mc2QmdWKr0 pic.twitter.com/dXZmHtFRWk

— U.S. Secret Service (@SecretService) June 4, 2025

Christopher Delzotto, the section chief of the Financial Crimes Section for the FBI, stated that the agency informed more than 5,400 people who fell victim to crypto scams from January 2024 to April of this year, many of whom were unaware that they had been targeted.

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Crypto-Related Crimes on the Rise Globally

Germany is not the only country witnessing an increased level of crypto-related criminal activity. Crypto crimes are rising globally, and so is concern regarding the use of digital assets to further nefarious interests.

In the UK, for instance, the National Crime Agency (NCA) reported that the total SARs filings from the 2023 to 2024 period rose to slightly more than 872,000. The report further noted that more than 6.6% of the total SARs filed linked back to crypto exchanges.

The region also saw an increase in counter-terrorism funding and an uptick in freezing suspicious accounts.

Shifting focus to the US, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) reported receiving over 8600 SARs linked to crypto in 2023. This was after the issuance of an advisory in September 2024 that resulted in weekly filings surging over 1560, bringing the total number of SARs filed in 2023 to 4.6 million.

A report published by Chainalysis suggests that the laundered crypto volume peaked in 2022 at $31.5 billion and came down to $22.2 billion in 2023. Though the 2023 numbers indicate a dip, these numbers are well above pre-2021 levels.

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Europe to Ban Privacy-Enhancing Coins by 2027

In line with their anti-money laundering regulations, the European Union will ban the use of privacy-enhancing coins by 1 July 2027. Additionally, there is a blanket crackdown on anonymous wallets in particular.

According to the new regulations, all crypto services in the EU will need to verify user identities. Furthermore, crypto transactions above €1000 will require a full KYC (Know Your Customer).

Also, unhosted wallets that were used for privacy are set to become compliant with the new regulations. The new regulations introduce rules centred around making users more traceable to counter fraud as Europe grapples with ever-increasing crypto scams.

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