• Hong Kong authorities have expertise coping with cryptocurrency-related crimes.
• Authorities thwart an try to kidnap a boy from a sq. in Hong Kong.
• Stablecoins might be frozen in a day, whereas conventional banks take longer.

Hong Kong authorities are reportedly gaining expertise in coping with cryptocurrency-related crimes, having not too long ago thwarted an tried kidnapping of a boy from the Tseung Kwan O Plaza buying middle and demanded a ransom of US$660,000.

Commenting on the latest occasions, Louis Lee Shi-chun, a distinguished crypto investor and advisor to native tech startup affiliation 852Web3, famous that the USDT stablecoin is traceable. Lee defined that firms that problem USDT trade it for an equal quantity of US {dollars} and maintain it as a peg all through the stablecoin’s existence.

In the meantime, Lee famous that authorities might ask stablecoin issuers to freeze or destroy cash saved in wallets if against the law happens. Such a case can be much like the one in November final 12 months when the U.S. Secret Service uncovered a human trafficking syndicate working a pig slaughterhouse with ties to Southeast Asia. Tether froze $225 million price of USDT related to the syndicate.

Joshua Chu Kiu-wa, a lawyer specializing in know-how disputes and cybersecurity, highlighted the effectivity of freezing stablecoin funds. In accordance with Chu, authorities can freeze such funds inside a day, whereas conventional banks can take a number of months, contemplating that the process requires a courtroom order until there are particular circumstances.

Li and Chu acknowledged that it’s simple and potential to determine suspicious stablecoin holders every time they wish to convert their holdings into money. Li believes that such a course of is more likely to contain centralized organizations resembling exchanges, banks, and cash exchanges. Thus, regulation enforcement businesses can pursue the involvement of such organizations by notifying them of suspicious accounts.

Whereas Hong Kong authorities acknowledge they’ve made progress in tackling crypto-related crimes, crimes involving decentralized cryptocurrencies resembling Bitcoin and Ethereum stay past their attain. These crypto belongings are disintermediated and almost inconceivable to hint to particular house owners. Equally, transactions carried out utilizing decentralized exchanges (DEXs) stay untraceable provided that DEXs, because of their standing, are unlikely to cooperate with authorities to crack down on customers.