ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews relationship between crypto-assets and criminality, focusing in particular on the area of money laundering and terrorism financing, two key areas of criminal activity, and, in this context, the legal framework of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) – which was updated in 2019 to incorporate crypto-assets – will be considered. According to FATF, crypto-assets are virtual assets in circulation on the internet, which are used for a variety of functions such as media of exchange, units of account or stores of value. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has taken the lead in international efforts to address crypto-asset criminality, focusing in particular on anti-money laundering (AML) and counterterrorist financing. The incorporation of crypto-assets into the existing FATF AML/CFT framework is a decisive step towards legitimacy for the ecosystem. One of the reasons crypto-assets have been exploited by criminals has been the ambivalent position of law on their legal status and regulatory controls.
