On Thursday 7 June, the special 'TAX 3' committee of the European Parliament on financial crimes, fraud and evasion examined the implications of virtual currencies for financial crime, at a session attended by Prof. Robby Houben of the University of Antwerp.
Houben takes the view that the key problem is the total anonymity provided by transactions carried out in virtual currencies. A drugs trafficker who acquires cash to purchase Bitcoin on an online trading platform and then exchanges the...