Money laundering via BTC

[nrnahid]

Of course it is possible to launder money via Bitcoin. Otherwise, Bitcoin cannot be considered the equivalent of a real currency, because the ability to launder money is a "feature" of every fiat currency.

[stadus]

Money laundering is the main reason of why some governments would not accept Bitcoin in their country. Even do there is regulation which is the way to counter this money laudering activities still some government would not adopt the investment which i wonder why.

Government does not have to adopt to any, they just have to regulate crypto so they have a power to monitor the transactions in a legal way.
Money laundering is possible in fiat and in crypto but fiat is regulated and normal big transactions are happening within the banking system or bank to bank transaction and since they oversee the bank, they have to power to trace transactions of deposits and eventually find those money launderers who are in the hot list.

Crypto runs in the blockchain but this blockchain can be regulated, therefore its easy as we have a so called public ledger, their job now is just to look for whoever owns the transaction by regulating crypto exchanges and similar businesses.

[nrnahid]

Is it possible to do money laundering via bitcoin? I mean as no one knows if you have bitcoin and how much bitcoin do you actually own, it could be used to convert black money to white right? Or at least store your black money without much hassle. But there is the risk of its value but I think for people who have lots of black money and don't want to be caught, this risk might be worth taking for them isn't it?
What are your thoughts?

Bitcoin is many places is not considered a currency or money but is called a virtual service, so in some places, it's just considered as a commodity rather than as a currency. Of course I am sure governments will try to regulate and control if they see too much money is being drained from their country.

[marcbitcoins]

Is it possible to do money laundering via bitcoin? I mean as no one knows if you have bitcoin and how much bitcoin do you actually own, it could be used to convert black money to white right? Or at least store your black money without much hassle. But there is the risk of its value but I think for people who have lots of black money and don't want to be caught, this risk might be worth taking for them isn't it?
What are your thoughts?

Money laundering is really possible for Bitcoin because it is also a currency or a money. In fact some countries are hesitant to adapt Bitcoin investment because of money laundering but thanks to the regulation in which money laundering using Bitcoin is now controllable. Latest News from Poland regarding money laundering activities but was foiled. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2019-10-25/crypto-capital-official-nabbed-in-polish-money-laundering-probe

[bitbrawlers]

Is it possible to do money laundering via bitcoin? I mean as no one knows if you have bitcoin and how much bitcoin do you actually own, it could be used to convert black money to white right? Or at least store your black money without much hassle. But there is the risk of its value but I think for people who have lots of black money and don't want to be caught, this risk might be worth taking for them isn't it?
What are your thoughts?

Money laundering is really possible for Bitcoin because it is also a currency or a money. In fact some countries are hesitant to adapt Bitcoin investment because of money laundering but thanks to the regulation in which money laundering using Bitcoin is now controllable. Latest News from Poland regarding money laundering activities but was foiled. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2019-10-25/crypto-capital-official-nabbed-in-polish-money-laundering-probe

Bitcoin is actually regulated as a commodity but sometimes also regulated as a virtual currency. Money laundering is less than ideal with bitcoin because all transactions are visible on the blockchain unlike fiat currency. It's in fact easier to launder money using fiat than it is using bitcoin, and so far none of the AML regulations for fiat currency has made any real dent against money laundering. It's only hurt SMEs due to all of the paperwork they need to deal with.

[bitbrawlers]

Bitcoin is many places is not considered a currency or money but is called a virtual service, so in some places, it's just considered as a commodity rather than as a currency. Of course I am sure governments will try to regulate and control if they see too much money is being drained from their country.

Yes this is absolutely true. However it will be difficult to regulate BTC since it can be stored locally on your device. They can only make the fiat to BTC on ramps ("centralized exchanges") more difficult to access by requiring KYC, though this simply results in decentralized services like bisq becoming more popular since it allows converting fiat to BTC with no ID.

[Natalim]

Bitcoin is many places is not considered a currency or money but is called a virtual service, so in some places, it's just considered as a commodity rather than as a currency. Of course I am sure governments will try to regulate and control if they see too much money is being drained from their country.

Yes this is absolutely true. However it will be difficult to regulate BTC since it can be stored locally on your device. They can only make the fiat to BTC on ramps ("centralized exchanges") more difficult to access by requiring KYC, though this simply results in decentralized services like bisq becoming more popular since it allows converting fiat to BTC with no ID.

To regulate BTC, they need to regulate the channels where people are trading it for fiat.
They can't have a complete control since bitcoin is design to be a decentralized currency which those who holds it will have total control of their assets.

We might not like the idea of it to be regulated or control but since holding bitcoin is a high risk, the only answer I see is only regulation.

[zahed]

There are a lot of way for money laundering but bitcoin is the best way among all the way of money laundering and for becoming favorite of bitcoin is one of the main reason is money laundering.

Bitcoin being a place for money laundering makes perfect sense because of anonymous factors. But in my opinion the percentage is not big because right now bitcoin has become a place of speculation for big capital owners because the price is fluctuating, so large investors can enjoy large profits in a short time.
Certainly different from general money laundering places such as banks, gold investment or buying property, of course the price continues to rise even though it is not as fast and as high as biotcoin. If bitcoin becomes a place for money laundering it is certainly very risky, because if the price goes down the money from the crime will decrease in value.

There are many ways to money laundering likes you say about gold or property investment which is physical investment that's the big risky from Bitcoin. Because BTC is anonymous and it's not traceable by government but gold or property is visible. BTC is the best and safest way to money transfer in another countries.

[tracey77]

People believed that they could launder dirty money with bitcoin by being anonymous. But it's only an apparent anonymity. The truth is that nothing gets lost on the internet and you can find every transaction and link it to the user. Anyone who commits a robbery should be punished. Companies that deal with AML and KYC procedures come to the aid. For example Coinfirm. Company that gained publicity through business partnerships with the biggest giants like Binance, Kroll, Coindeal, RSK, XAPO, Government of Gibraltar, Cointelligence.

If you are interested in what they do, you can find more information on their website: https://www.coinfirm.com/

[USBitcoinServices.Com]

Is it possible to do money laundering via bitcoin? I mean as no one knows if you have bitcoin and how much bitcoin do you actually own, it could be used to convert black money to white right? Or at least store your black money without much hassle. But there is the risk of its value but I think for people who have lots of black money and don't want to be caught, this risk might be worth taking for them isn't it?
What are your thoughts?

With bitcoin, anyone can see the transactions of btc accounts, but with ONION, they have deepsend a feature that will me your tx untraceable!  Currently, bad people can use cash to do whatever they want, but with crypto people could do the same, so crypto is at least better than FIAT when it comes to blockchain, no more power goes to central gangsters!

[Finestream]

Is it possible to do money laundering via bitcoin? I mean as no one knows if you have bitcoin and how much bitcoin do you actually own, it could be used to convert black money to white right? Or at least store your black money without much hassle. But there is the risk of its value but I think for people who have lots of black money and don't want to be caught, this risk might be worth taking for them isn't it?
What are your thoughts?

With bitcoin, anyone can see the transactions of btc accounts, but with ONION, they have deepsend a feature that will me your tx untraceable!  Currently, bad people can use cash to do whatever they want, but with crypto people could do the same, so crypto is at least better than FIAT when it comes to blockchain, no more power goes to central gangsters!

Government has no control on decentralized coins, more on the anonymous coins.
Money launder however will still use exchange to convert their coins into fiat, that's where the government will enter, they require the exchange to comply with the regulation they set, so no person that will not be trace once he used an exchange and even DEX now are targeted by the government.

one example is Binance DEX is not totally DEX.

[Cimmy_revenger]

it is possible to launder money using bitcoin, the simplest thing to break up bitcoin in some exchangers without the need for KYC.
and from the exchanger it is withdrawn with other cryto assets.

[Botnake]

it is possible to launder money using bitcoin, the simplest thing to break up bitcoin in some exchangers without the need for KYC.
and from the exchanger it is withdrawn with other cryto assets.

You'll be trace because exchanges uses only few wallets although with difference address per user.
If that exchange is regulated by the government, they can require the exchange to give information if the AMLC will conduct an investigation on the certain address being use for suspected money laundering, the best way to do it is through mixers, they are not regulated so it will be hard to trace the money once its on the mixers already.

[USBitcoinServices.Com]

it is possible to launder money using bitcoin, the simplest thing to break up bitcoin in some exchangers without the need for KYC.
and from the exchanger it is withdrawn with other cryto assets.

You'll be trace because exchanges uses only few wallets although with difference address per user.
If that exchange is regulated by the government, they can require the exchange to give information if the AMLC will conduct an investigation on the certain address being use for suspected money laundering, the best way to do it is through mixers, they are not regulated so it will be hard to trace the money once its on the mixers already.

In that case, many people will opt to use privacy coins, many of them have mixer features and are untraceable. On the other hand, privacy is a right, even the congressman mentioned how the USA will be to protect citizens from prying eyes when doing crypto tx and he referred to the idea that privacy coins are going to be needed, unlike China, they have a different market, who knows what will happen with their new CDDC.

[Meowth05]

Of course it is possible to launder money via Bitcoin. Otherwise, Bitcoin cannot be considered the equivalent of a real currency, because the ability to launder money is a "feature" of every fiat currency. 

I agree with what he/she says but I think the reason that people choose to launder dirty money in bitcoin is because it is safer and almost all transactions are anonymous. Maybe the big similarity of fiat and bitcoin when it comes to laundering money is the process where you can only launder a small amount of money so that it doesn't make that much attention.

[kingpsj]

you are right in a way, but also its very easy to track money laundering via bitcoin because of amazing blockchain technology. They are many firms like chain analysis who are actually working with many govt agencies throughout the world to track activities on Blockchain. Also, because of strict compliances almost 99% of the platforms are following KYC/AML norms very strictly hence even to buy 0.01 BTC you might be required to do all KYC's.

Also, sine regulators are on mass surveillance they are already aware of Exchanges addresses, so here using blockchain they can completely get to the root and connect dots very easily. Plus all platforms record your IP and other stuffs, so be careful and dont use BTC for any wrong purpose. It is also the entire community at stake like the saying goes " One bad fish spoils all".

[nomenclatur]

Money laundering is the main reason of why some governments would not accept Bitcoin in their country. Even do there is regulation which is the way to counter this money laudering activities still some government would not adopt the investment which i wonder why.

all countries have different regulations as the rule of law can not be disturbed or under state, regulation is an absolute can not be changed by the government only in the country itself can change the rules themselves. money laundering is not allowed the government for fear of money from illegal proceeds obtained from a criminal and whom they buy bitcoin to hide their money very prohibit governments in many countries are not allowed.

[Natalim]

money laundering is not allowed the government for fear of money from illegal proceeds obtained from a criminal............

you need to fully understand what is money laundering,.. it is an act to wash money from illegal activities, so that is clearly illegal.
Most countries have use a standard money laundering producer, that is why it's hard to launder money if you use bank as most bank are reporting to the AMLC.

[Salamstar]

Is it possible to do money laundering via bitcoin? I mean as no one knows if you have bitcoin and how much bitcoin do you actually own, it could be used to convert black money to white right? Or at least store your black money without much hassle. But there is the risk of its value but I think for people who have lots of black money and don't want to be caught, this risk might be worth taking for them isn't it?
What are your thoughts?

Certainly, this is possible. Whenever a person can, at any time, buy large assets without any records documenting purchases and without any monitoring body being able to follow up and know their identity, it becomes as easy as opening a channel to invest the proceeds of criminal operations without too much fear that the matter will be discovered .

[suvo05]

Governments are using the cryptography research teams to track the BTC transaction, so Govs are very much aware of this and trying to stop money laundering through BTC.