Up to £ 6 million in Crypto has been frozen by the courts since new powers were in force last year, MailOnline can reveal.
Criminals are increasingly using digital currencies such as Bitcoin to launch money, avoid taxes and to fund terrorism.
Ministers launched a performance against the 'emerging threat' last April, with police, law enforcement and the HMRC were allowed to freeze suspicious cryptocurrency portfolios.
According to the rules designed to rob criminals of unlawfully obtained profits, the suspect crypto portfolios can be frozen for up to three years.
Frozen stock can then be seized, if a court is satisfied, the funds have been won or used illegally.
The analysis of MailOnline of judicial documents published in the past six months showed that the largest freezing warrant was for £ 1.5 million in crypto.
It was kept in a single wallet organized by the American exchange website Coinbase, with the actual owner remaining a mystery.
The order, made on March 18 in Newcastle on Tyne Magistrates' court, was requested by HMRC, which means that it could be related to tax evasion.
Even more could have been frozen between April-September 2024, but data from Courtsdesk-one online database that follows legal proceedings in England and Wales is only half a year ago for legal reasons.
Crypto -legal expert Nick Barnard, partner at Corker Binning, said that the figure was not enormous 'in the large schedule' compared to the billions in daily crypto transactions worldwide or the amounts that are seized by authorities of traditional bank accounts.
Mr. Barnard said that the new regime came from a 'standing start' in April, so it needs time to 'get to the speed'.
But lawyer Siobhain Egan told MailOnline that the government led more resources to freeze crypto to combat 'aggressive' money -white and terrorism financing.
Mrs. Egan, who defends people whose assets are frozen, added: “We expect completely for a tsunami from Crypto freezing assignments on the circuit.”
Researchers apply to freeze the crypto portfolios of alleged criminals without their knowledge, so that they do not get the chance to move Bitcoin or other digital funds.
Mrs. Egan, director of Lewis Nedas Law, said: 'If [police] Hold a major investigation into organized criminals who laundry money through crypto, they will go in and grab the assets before they complete the investigation.
“The recipient of that order will have to respond to questions from the authorities who can help them build a case against them in certain circumstances, in an umbrella investigation.”
She said that the new powers 'gaps in the research process' connect.
Mrs. Egan added: 'Organized crime groups and terrorists who use crypto has always been a great fear of the authorities and they are correct.
'The alleged villains use it and the authorities have needed a while to catch up with a very fast moving area.
'HMRC is very enthusiastic about tackling tax evasion and get their act quite well together. The National Crime Agency (NCA) has also been very aggressive. '
She added that many people who have seized crypto or frozen in the UK are often strangers.
Crypto was used last year in an estimated £ 39.8 billion ($ 51.3 billion) in illegal transactions worldwide.
This has risen from £ 35.7 billion ($ 46.1 billion) in 2023, and was the highest registered when excluding the billions stolen by FTX-MEDE founder Sam Bankman-Gefuurt, who was imprisoned in the US for deceptive customers and investors.
The real figures will be much greater because they exclude crimes that are not 'native' to crypto, such as drug trafficking.
According to the chains salys report, criminals have changed the coins that they use mainly from Bitcoin in 2020, in so -called 'stablecoins', coupled to a raw material with a stable value, such as gold or a real currency. The most common is USDT, which is set on the US dollar.
Mr. Barnard said: “The vast majority of police and financial researchers do not understand crypto, so there is not so many resources devoted to understanding and investigating.
“There is fewer resources devoted to crypto than money laundering due to money and traditional bank fraud by normal currency.”
He said that some proceeds from serious crime, such as drugs, weapons will be washed by crypto, but the vast majority is through long -term “traditional” methods, of which there are many '.
He said that it is usually only practical to freeze crypto assets that are held at trade fairs or centralized wallet providers such as Coinbase, Kraken or Binance, and in the case of the British Crypto-Wallet freezing regime, only where that organization has some connection with the VK to use the powers.
This is because the Exchange Service controls the wallet, similar to a bank. However, it is possible to save your wallet on a personal machine that is protected by a private key, with which it is not without accessible.
Jian Wen (photo) was found with Bitcoin portfolios worth more than £ 2 billion (now £ 4.5 billion). She was convicted of a crime linked to money laundering last May
The Chinese collection employee Jian Wen had now seized Bitcoin worth £ 4.5 billion last year, in the largest crypto -bust in history.
The 42-year-old drove an E-class Mercedes-Benz, surrendered to £ 30,000 Harrods stores and registered her son at prestigious £ 6,000-per-term Heathside Preparatory school near her £ 5 million house.
It was only when she started building a global ownership empire, in an attempt to buy a Hampstead -Huisenhuis of £ 23 million, a £ 10 million Tuscan villa and apartments in Dubai, that alarm bells began to ring around the single mother who barely had 5,000 at her name in the VK to work in the VK.
Last May, the Chinese immigrant who helped Bitcoin were launching an investment fraud of £ 5 billion for more than six years.
Judge Sally-Ann Hales, KC, said that Gen played a key role in an advanced criminal company that was 'generally rewarded' for her work that the proceeds from an asset management stream in China washing, where 128,000 investors were duped.
The Home Office and Coinbase are contacted for comment.
