Briefly
New analysis from the World Initiative Towards Transnational Organized Crime discovered that crypto is enjoying a “rising position” in felony exercise within the Western Balkans.
The NGO discovered that tens of thousands and thousands of euros linked to felony networks from the area had been routed via crypto wallets.
The Western Balkans has solely three documented instances of crypto seizure, all of which occurred in the previous few years.
Criminals are making growing use of cryptocurrency in Western Balkan nations equivalent to Albania and Serbia, in accordance with analysis from the World Initiative Towards Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC).
Writing in considered one of two new danger bulletins for this month, the Geneva-based NGO discovered that seizing illicitly sourced crypto stays an enormous problem within the Balkans, with Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia residence to “solely three documented instances of crypto asset seizures” up to now.
The bulletin defined that the unlawful use of crypto has grown in tandem with extra reliable makes use of, as transaction volumes within the area sit someplace between $25 billion and $30 billion.
It’s on this context that Montenegro has change into a significant European node for the usage of crypto on darknet marketplaces, whereas utilizing crypto to launder the proceeds of drug trafficking has grown lately in Albania and Serbia, as per an earlier GI-TOC bulletin from December.
Sasa Djordjevic, GI-TOC’s senior analyst for the Western Balkans, informed Decrypt that cryptocurrencies are “enjoying a rising position in felony exercise within the Western Balkans,” with the area additionally seeing a progress in use for fraud and unlawful crypto-mining.
“Drug trafficking teams are more and more utilizing crypto to maneuver and conceal their earnings,” he stated. “Some suspicious transactions linked to felony networks from the Western Balkans are value tens of thousands and thousands of euros, typically routed via crypto wallets and reinvested into authorized companies.”
Djordjevic additionally notes that such patterns are inclined to mirror identified cocaine trafficking routes from Latin America to Europe, whereas GI-TOC has noticed connections between felony actors within the Western Balkans and darknet markets equivalent to Hydra, previous to its shutdown in 2022.
A rising downside
GI-TOC’s newest bulletin means that illicit utilization will proceed rising within the area, on condition that native authorities are struggling to maintain up with such utilization when it comes to laws, technical experience and cross-border cooperation.
“Presently, solely three out of six Western Balkan international locations have adopted legal guidelines on digital property, and implementation has but to start in considered one of them,” defined Djordjevic.
The three international locations Djordjevic is referring to listed below are Albania, Serbia and Kosovo, the latter of which launched cryptocurrency laws in November—however the bylaws essential for implementation haven’t but been adopted.
“Though the EU’s MiCA regulation affords a path towards stronger oversight, full and constant implementation throughout the area stays difficult, because the Western Balkans aren’t but a part of the EU,” he added. “Till regulatory and enforcement capacities are strengthened, the area will stay susceptible to illicit crypto exercise.”
As talked about above, the Western Balkans has solely three documented instances of crypto seizure, all of which occurred within the final couple of years.
The newest of those concerned the seizure of property belonging to an Albanian crime syndicate, which was the goal of an operation between November 2024 and January 2025.
Working together with an unidentified stablecoin operator and a significant crypto-exchange, forces from Albania, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Europol seized the gang’s money, financial institution accounts and different property, together with {hardware} wallets containing $10 million in cryptocurrencies.
Enjoying catch-up
Nonetheless, such examples are nonetheless few and much between, and for Djordjevic and GI-TOC, the state of affairs gained’t enhance till the area’s authorities meet up with the tempo of change.
This not solely implies that governments ought to “undertake and implement clear laws” for tracing and seizing illicit crypto, however that regulation enforcement should “spend money on superior blockchain instruments” and specialised coaching.
“Implementing FATF suggestions and EU guidelines on crypto stays key, notably for international locations beforehand on the FATF gray record,” Djordjevic stated, including that nearer cooperation with Europol, Interpol and different nationwide companies can also be a necessity.
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