“Now You See It. Now You Don't”- How Cryptocurrencies Enable Money Laundering

Sammanfattning: Money laundering is a non-violent crime, however when successfully executed it has a negative impact on society, as it tends to support other illicit activities, including terrorism. As was the case for other financial crimes, the internet opened the door for new tools that enable criminals to launder their illicit profits. One of these tools is cryptocurrency.This paper takes the form of a literature review, in order to find the most relevant and important work within the research topic, and to identify central issues associated with laundering money through cryptocurrencies. It aims to explain the crypto-laundering process, methods and features that make cryptocurrencies tempting to criminals when searching tools to launder their illicit profits.The findings of this literature review demonstrate that cryptocurrencies have more characteristics that appeal to launderers than deters them. The results also show the existence of different methods that are employed in crypto-laundering and how it mirrors traditional money laundering stages, making evident that crypto-laundering is a real threat. Due to these results, it is essential that the criminological community delve into financial crimes perpetrated in the online environment.