Money from the drug trade has begun to flow into the cryptocurrency market, the government of China has declared. This is as the trade in these illegal substances expands to the Internet.
The statement is from the China Anti-Drug Network, which issued a report in which it claimed that the new phenomenon took off in 2021.
Drug money now flows into digital assets
That is, since last year, illicit funds from drug-related activities have flowed into digital assets:
“Cryptocurrency trading has been used by various criminals on gaming platforms and the dark web,” the document states.
According to the report, this is being done by traffickers from Latin America, the main “exporter” of cocaine to China.
Last year alone, authorities seized more than 690 kg of cocaine. This is an increase of 18.6% over the previous year.
Meanwhile, cannabis imports from North America recorded 308.9 kilograms of seizures.
The main region to receive drugs of this type is the “Golden Triangle”. The region includes parts of Burma, China, Laos and Thailand.
In addition to this region, there is the “Golden Crescent” region, an area of illicit opium production in Central Asia. The region includes the mountains of Afghanistan, Pakistan and the eastern part of Iran.
The report notes, however, that China’s counternarcotics departments will adapt to these activities. They promise to increase enforcement and persecution of cryptocurrency platforms.
“Special actions aimed at cleaning up the source and cutting off the flow of money are via cryptocurrencies,” the text highlights.
China has banned all cryptocurrency-related activities, including mining and transactions of any kind in 2021.
“In the future, investor confidence will collapse. Sovereign countries will declare the BTC illegal. Thus, it will return to its original value, which is totally useless,” notes the Communist Party of China (CPC) newspaper.
According to the CCP, this will be due to lack of regulation and constant price manipulations in the crypto market.
What a recession means for BTC
