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Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco on Wednesday announced the creation of a National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET), to tackle complex investigations and prosecutions of criminal misuses of cryptocurrency.

Areas of concentration include crimes committed by virtual currency exchanges, mixing and tumbling services, and money laundering infrastructure actors.

The team will also assist in tracing and recovery of assets lost to fraud and extortion, including cryptocurrency payments to ransomware groups.

“Today we are launching the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team to draw on the Department’s cyber and money laundering expertise to strengthen our capacity to dismantle the financial entities that enable criminal actors to flourish — and quite frankly to profit — from abusing cryptocurrency platforms” said Monaco.

“As the technology advances, so too must the Department evolve with it so that we’re poised to root out abuse on these platforms and ensure user confidence in these systems,” she added.

The NCET will also play a critical support role for international, federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial law enforcement authorities grappling with new technologies and new forms of criminal tradecraft.