Cryptocurrencies are spawning a new generation of private eyes

FOR THE criminally minded, the allure of cryptocurrencies is easy to grasp. Decentralised online ledgers called blockchains allow digital assets, in the form of “tokens”, to be moved without financial institutions monitoring what is happening for signs of money-laundering or other wrongdoing. Chainalysis, a crypto-investigations firm in New York, tallied more than $53bn in suspected crypto-laundering in 2022-23, nearly double its estimate for the previous two years. Nicholas Smart of the Dubai office of Amsterdam-based Crystal Intelligence, another investigator, quips that with blockchains, “Anyone can become a bank.”