Co-founder of technology company First AML Bion Behdin thinks that the metaverse will be a perfect instrument for money laundering.
Behdin assured web3 and metaverse itself could attract a lot of criminals, who want to legalize or hide their money.
“Once criminals turn their cash into nontraceable and easily hidden currencies, all it takes is the click of a button over and over again to buy and sell items in the metaverse, that are impossible for humans to trace”, – he wrote.
According to him, cryptocurrency-linked crime surged to a record high last year in terms of value. Illegal addresses received $14 billion in digital currencies, up 79% from $7.8 billion in 2020.
So Behind thinks that Web3 and metaverse should obligatorily have some Know Your Customer (KYC) or anti-money laundering (AML) check instruments.
Chinese authorities are also taking the risks seriously.
The anti-money laundering department of the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) has stated that the apex bank will regulate the nonfungible token (NFT) and metaverse sectors.
The NFT and metaverse sectors are two of the rising areas in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space. China, that has already banned mining and adoption of cryptocurrencies, is ready to crack down on their activities.
According to the latest reports, the PBOC feels NFTs and metaverse could be used for money laundering. Chinese investigators say, that in addition to cryptocurrencies, NFTs and the metaverse have a certain degree of interoperability. As such, they can easily become tools for criminals.
It’s to early to worry, right?
Considering the real metaverse isn’t even close, such instruments can be a bit amiss now.
During the 2017-2020 period most financial crimes were committed with traditional financial instruments.
Despite their anonymity it is possible to trace and crack down most crypto transactions in case of any illicit activity, experts say.
At the same time, some analysts say we are seeing the rise of the in crime linked to crypto. Cryptocurrency-linked crime surged to a record high last year in terms of value, with illegal addresses receiving $14 billion in digital currencies, up 79% from $7.8 billion in 2020, Chainalysis experts say.
Sources: SmartCompany
