The IRS seized $4 billion worth of Bitcoin and other cryptos this year

Despite the fact that a large percentage of all funds seized by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in this fiscal year came from cryptocurrency, the agency has projected that it could be able to confiscate more billions from the same source by the next fiscal year. 

This was revealed via the recently released report of the Criminal Investigation Unit of IRS. In the Criminal Investigation Annual Report, the CI unit detailed all activities that took place from October 1, 2020, to September 30, 2021. 

The report highlighted the statistics, partnerships, and significant criminal enforcement actions that happened between the timeframe, such as the high-profile crypto case of “the longest-running bitcoin money-laundering service on the darknet dubbed Bitcoin Fog.”

93% of funds seized by IRS in 2021 is from Crypto

According to the report, the IRS seized around $3.5 billion in cryptocurrency during this fiscal year. Interestingly, this figure also represents 93% of all seized funds by the unit within the same period.

While these seizures appear huge, the federal tax agency has indicated that it could be making more crypto funds seizures by next year. Per IRS, it expects more funds to be seized as crypto is being commonly used to perpetrate crimes and other similar illegal activities.

IRS Criminal Investigation Chief Jim Lee commenting on the seized revealed that he expects the trend to continue in 2022. He added that with crypto now being increasingly used in a number of crimes, the agency could be able to pry those illegal funds out of the hands of the criminals.

The acting executive director of the IRS Cyber and Forensic Services division, Jarod Koopman shared the same view that large cryptocurrency seizures could be realized in the next fiscal year, as the agency now shifts its investigation toward crypto crimes.

We do expect that to stay somewhat in that range, based off of some investigations we’re currently working on that are pretty large in size and scope … We might be topping that figure next year.

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