Crypto Usage Grows As Drug Trades Digitalizes: Analysis

Crypto usage is on the increase as the drug trade also digitalizes and cryptocurrencies are having a hard time to keep their name clean. The speculation about the inherent value and being a payment method of choice for criminals is also making the job even harder as we are about to read in the coming altcoin news below.

One of the most common accusations is that cryptocurrencies are used in the selling of illicit drugs and the United States Treasury Secretary Steven Mhuchin explained. The impact that cryptocurrencies have on illegal drug sales is a long topic to be discussed and analysts wonder if we should always blame them or just cash. The US is taking decisive action against illicit drugs selling and they aim to stop the purchasing drugs with cryptocurrency all the way back in 2013 when the FBI agents rushed into the San Francisco Public Library to arrest Ross Ulbricht who played a central role in the digitalization of the international drug trade.

Operating under the pseudonym ‘’Dread Pirate Roberts’’, Ulbricht was the person behind the Silk Road which is basically an online, darknet marketplace which lets the users buy and sell anything legal or not. The site did also list weapons, stolen credit cards but also drugs as the most common listing. The Silk Road pioneered with the use of Tor which was the network software used to access the darknet and Bitcoin was the tool to buy and sell and the tool to hide the seller or the buyer’s identities. The US agents hoped that the seizure of the Silk Road will decrease the darkent activity but according to DeepDotWeb the bust was the ‘’best advertising that the darknet markets could have hoped for.’’ This year, the darknet markets are still in the high of selling illicit drugs that can be purchased with cryptocurrency but the US law enforcement is taking a hardline approach by arresting people for selling drugs on the darknet in exchange for Bitcoin which shows that crypto usage is on the increase again.

The recent events confirm the firm policy that the US government has and less than two weeks ago the Department of Treasury added a few crypto addresses to its Specially Designated Nationals list under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act as we read in the latest cryptocurrency news.