Britain’s National Economic Crime Centre has warned that criminals are making “innovative use” of cryptoasset products to hide activity and move illicit funds at scale, according to its latest annual report. The assessment places crypto alongside other fast-evolving tools used by laundering networks that operate across borders and blend legal and illegal financial channels.
The report also shows crypto moving higher up the UK enforcement agenda. In a set of nine economic crime priorities agreed with the Financial Conduct Authority, the Home Office and the Treasury, cryptoassets were ranked third for 2025, ahead of criminal cash and money mules.
Crypto elevated in UK risk priorities
The ranking, published in July 2025, is intended to guide where regulated firms concentrate compliance resources. By placing crypto near the top of the list, the NECC signaled that digital assets are now a central area of concern in the country’s broader anti-money-laundering response.
In the report’s threat assessment, the agency said laundering networks are expanding across jurisdictions and increasingly combine “novel and traditional” methods. That includes moving value through both licit and illicit systems at the same time, making detection harder for investigators and compliance teams.
Laundering networks and outsourced services
The NECC said many organized crime groups no longer wash their own proceeds directly. Instead, they are said to rely on specialist laundering networks that offer those services for a fee, adding another layer between the underlying crime and the movement of funds.
Within that picture, the agency highlighted crypto products as one of the tools being used to avoid scrutiny. It also pointed to AI in the same section of the report, citing synthetic identities and process automation used against banks.
Push for a more proactive crypto capability
The annual report says the agency is building “a more proactive and intelligence-led crypto capability to inform our response to cross-cutting priorities.” While the document does not explain how that capability will work in practice, the wording suggests an approach that goes beyond simply reacting to referrals and toward identifying targets independently.
No further operational detail was provided in the report, leaving open how the NECC plans to translate that strategy into investigations or enforcement activity.
Operation Atlantic offers a recent example
One of the clearest recent examples cited in the report was Operation Atlantic, a week-long operation held in March at National Crime Agency headquarters. The effort involved the U.S. Secret Service as well as Coinbase, Binance, Kraken and Tether.
According to the NECC, the operation identified 20,000 victims of approval phishing and led to the freezing of $12 million. The case was presented as a demonstration of the cross-border and public-private cooperation the agency is using as crypto-related crime becomes a higher priority.
The next confirmed step is the continued implementation of the 2025 priority framework, under which crypto now sits near the top of the UK’s economic crime agenda, even as the agency has yet to spell out the operational details of its expanded crypto capability.
Source: decrypt.co