2021 年英国扣押的加密资产多于现金，且这一趋势仍在持续

然而，情况也很复杂，目前正在就查获的具体有多少最终进入政府金库举行听证会。

Law enforcement agencies in the UK have been granted more powers to seize cryptocurrencies, as they become an increasingly common currency for criminals.

随着加密货币成为犯罪分子越来越普遍的货币，英国执法机构被授予更多权力来扣押加密货币。

In 2021, the National Crime Agency (NCA) seized £26.9 million worth of cryptocurrency, 45 per cent of the total and more than the £25.9 million of cash seized in that year.

2021 年，国家犯罪局 (NCA) 查获了价值 2690 万英镑的加密货币，占总量的 45%，超过当年查获的 2590 万英镑现金。

In its latest set of accounts for 2023-2024, it seized £6.2 million in cryptocurrency, about 13.7 per cent of its total asset seizures.

在其最新的 2023-2024 年账目中，它查获了 620 万英镑的加密货币，约占其查获资产总额的 13.7%。

The digital currencies have been involved in a range of crimes within the UK, including terrorism.

数字货币参与了英国境内的一系列犯罪活动，包括恐怖主义。

In 2021, a British man was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment after he used bitcoin to send about £55,000 to the terrorist group Isis.

2021年，一名英国男子因使用比特币向恐怖组织“伊斯兰国”汇款约5.5万英镑而被判处12年监禁。

“Seizure is probably the most relevant aspect [of government holdings of cryptocurrency] in the Western world,” said Matthias Bauer-Langgartner, the head of policy in Europe for Chainalysis, the blockchain analysis firm, who worked in the enforcement division of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

“在西方世界，扣押可能是（政府持有的加密货币）最相关的方面，”区块链分析公司 Chainaanalysis 的欧洲政策主管 Matthias Bauer-Langgartner 表示，他曾在金融执法部门工作。行为监管局 (FCA)。

“There’s this realisation from governments that crypto is pretty much in every crime. And if you don’t look at crypto and crypto connections, you will miss a massive part of it. In the US, they’ve seized more than $5 billion worth of US dollars in bitcoin and you also see the UK increasingly making seizures.”

“政府认识到加密货币几乎存在于所有犯罪行为中。如果您不关注加密货币和加密货币连接，您将错过其中的很大一部分。在美国，他们查获了价值超过 50 亿美元的比特币，英国也查获了越来越多的比特币。”

Earlier this year, new laws were enacted giving law enforcement agencies a range of powers to seize cryptocurrencies.

今年早些时候，颁布了新法律，赋予执法机构一系列没收加密货币的权力。

Law enforcement agencies can now take it from criminals before an arrest has even been made in some cases, or get third party crypto exchanges to freeze assets on their behalf.

在某些情况下，执法机构现在可以在逮捕犯罪分子之前就将其从犯罪分子手中拿走，或者让第三方加密货币交易所代表他们冻结资产。

Digital assets can then either be returned to victims, sold, or in some cases destroyed.

然后，数字资产可以退还给受害者、出售，或者在某些情况下被销毁。

So-called privacy coins, designed to grant their owner a high degree of anonymity and often found on illegal dark web markets, are the sort of asset that might be destroyed rather than returned to circulation.

所谓的隐私币旨在赋予其所有者高度匿名性，并且经常出现在非法暗网市场上，是一种可能会被销毁而不是返回流通的资产。

There are questions about how, and when, any more legitimate cryptocurrency should be sold, given their value tends to oscillate wildly.

鉴于加密货币的价值往往会剧烈波动，人们对如何以及何时出售任何更合法的加密货币存在疑问。

Even at the sentencing of Wen, who was jailed for more than six years after she was found guilty of money laundering in May, the judge noted that the “volatility of bitcoin” meant even determining the value of what she had laundered had not been a “straight-forward exercise”.

即使在五月份温被判犯有洗钱罪后被判入狱六年多，法官也指出，“比特币的波动性”意味着即使确定她洗钱的价值也不是一件容易的事。 “直接练习”。

“I don’t think anyone envisaged when they were writing this legislation that there would be billions of pounds sat in a government digital wallet. So, then the question is, well, if that is available, what happens to those funds then,” said Chris Etherington, a partner at the tax consultancy RSM.

“我认为在起草这项立法时没有人想到政府数字钱包里会有数十亿英镑。所以，问题是，如果可以的话，这些资金会怎样，”税务咨询公司 RSM 的合伙人克里斯·埃瑟林顿 (Chris Etherington) 表示。

In other countries, law enforcement has already encountered difficulties attempting to offload the asset.

在其他国家，执法部门在试图出售资产时已经遇到了困难。

In July, the German state of Saxony offloaded 49,858 bitcoins seized from the movie piracy website movie2k in just two weeks.

7 月，德国萨克森州在短短两周内就卸下了从电影盗版网站 movie2k 查获的 49,858 枚比特币。

The sale netted the government about €2.64 billion, though the fire sale — mandated by German law which necessitates an “emergency sale” of such assets — may have pulled down the price of the asset itself by as much as 5 per cent in contrast to staging smaller sales over a longer time period. In any case, the government missed out on an extra $447 million by not holding on to its digital assets until today.

此次出售为政府带来了约 26.4 亿欧元的净收益，尽管此次抛售——根据德国法律规定，必须“紧急出售”此类资产——可能已将资产本身的价格拉低了 5% 之多。在较长时间内进行较小的销售。无论如何，政府直到今天才持有其数字资产，因此错过了额外的 4.47 亿美元。

In the United States, just like other property seized under the Department of Justice’s Asset Forfeiture Program, bitcoin is entrusted to the US Marshals Service. It in turn holds crypto assets at Coinbase, the listed cryptocurrency exchange. At irregular intervals, the Marshals service disposes of clumps of bitcoin it has collected through a range of cases in sealed auctions.

在美国，就像根据司法部资产没收计划扣押的其他财产一样，比特币被委托给美国法警局。反过来，它在上市的加密货币交易所 Coinbase 持有加密资产。法警服务部门会不定期地处理通过一系列密封拍卖案件收集到的大量比特币。

In contrast, the UK’s powers are to some extent untested. Only in September, did police in Scotland use the new powers under the Proceeds of Crime Act to seize 23.5 bitcoins and convert a portion of it into almost £110,000 in cash.

相比之下，英国的权力在某种程度上未经考验。仅在 9 月份，苏格兰警方就利用《犯罪收益法》赋予的新权力没收了 23.5 个比特币，并将其中一部分兑换成近 11 万英镑现金。

Once the funds have been sold, however, the proceeds are then divvied up between the agencies involved in the case and the Home Office. The amount actually returned to the government depends on a number of factors, including payment of compensation to victims and recovery costs.

然而，一旦资金出售，所得款项将在涉案机构和内政部之间分配。实际返还给政府的金额取决于多种因素，包括向受害者支付的赔偿金和恢复费用。

In some cases, money might even have to be returned to a foreign state via the UN Convention Against Corruption if the victims of a crime live outside the UK.

在某些情况下，如果犯罪受害者居住在英国境外，甚至可能需要根据《联合国反腐败公约》将资金返还给外国。

UK regulation states that,as far as possible, the sale of any crypto asset must be done “in the manner best calculated to maximise the amount obtained for the property”. However, it’s yet unclear to what extent the heady swings in the price of such assets must be accounted for.

英国法规规定，任何加密资产的出售都必须尽可能“以最佳计算方式进行，以最大限度地提高财产价值”。然而，目前尚不清楚此类资产价格的剧烈波动必须在多大程度上得到解释。

Indeed, the FCA has frequently issued warnings to investors, emphasising the high risk and

事实上，FCA经常向投资者发出警告，强调高风险和