Crypto Crime Crackdown: Elliptic & Internet Watch Foundation Launch War Against Child Abuse Financing
Blockchain sleuths and child protection warriors join forces—tracing tainted crypto through the dark web's back alleys.
How crypto's transparency becomes its own weapon
The irony? The same tech that lets hedge funds gamble with leverage is now being weaponized to hunt predators. Elliptic's blockchain forensic tools—normally used to appease regulators—are following the money trail to takedown child exploitation rings. Meanwhile, the Internet Watch Foundation brings decades of grim expertise in tracking illegal content.
Finance jab: Wall Street still can't decide whether to ban crypto or ETFs—meanwhile, actual crime fighters are putting it to work.
Privacy coins and crime
The past few years have witnessed an increase in CSAM websites making use of Monero and other privacy coins, according to a 2024 Chainalysis bulletin, which suggested that “Monero may be helping those CSAM vendors [which use Monero-friendly exchanges to] survive longer.”
Such usage raises a problem for organizations such as the IWF and Elliptic, which could potentially struggle to trace the FLOW of illicit crypto if more criminals use privacy tokens.
While acknowledging that such coins offer “ways to obscure the source and destination of funds,” Fersini also affirmed that they “are often only complementary to traceable assets” and may only be one element in a wider obfuscation strategy.
“This trend reinforces the need for advanced solutions and high-quality intelligence,” he adds. “Elliptic addresses this challenge by providing data capabilities that are asset-agnostic and optimized to detect patterns and connections even in the face of deliberate concealment.”
In terms of the future, the IWF is “looking to expand [its] Membership into the blockchain/crypto industry,” according to its Press Officer Cat McShane, who reminded Decrypt that blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis also works with the non-profit organization.
She says, “It is imperative that we disrupt the commercialization of CSAM as much as we can and having organizations like Elliptic on our side really aids this.”