Almost all of the money seized by the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation unit over the past fiscal year was in cryptocurrency, the agency announced Thursday — a strong indication of just how common it has become in the criminal world.
The unit seized $3.5 billion in cryptocurrency in nontax investigations over the past fiscal year, making up 93 percent of its overall seizures Oct. 1, 2020-Sept. 30, 2021.
The report marks a sharp turn toward bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for the IRS, where digital money has quickly become the dominant form of payment in criminal cases in which the agency seizes funds.
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