According to this interview with FBI’s Financial Crimes Section Chief on CNBC, the FBI is seeing an increase in the number of complaints and cases opened involving digital currencies and crime. In particular, the FBI said that it is mostly ICOs and associated investment fraud schemes involving Bitcoin that are on the raise for investigations where retail investors (e.g., the public) is the target.
According to the FBI, criminals are increasingly using Bitcoin for crimes and as a result, the FBI is liaising with the Five Eyes to learn about digital currencies and crime. However, cash is still king for crimes because of the fact that there is always an intersection point when dealing with digital currencies.