Golden Finance reports that in the face of increasingly rampant digital asset money laundering activities, the Hong Kong Customs and the University of Hong Kong have joined hands to jointly develop a cryptocurrency transaction tracking tool. Assistant Commissioner of Customs Wong Ho-hin made it clear that this cooperation aims to fully combat cross-border financial crimes and maintain the stability and security of Hong Kong’s financial market.
In recent years, with the vigorous development of the cryptocurrency market, its characteristics such as anonymity and convenience have led criminals to use it as a new means of money laundering, and the number of related cases has shown a significant upward trend. From 2021 to May 2025, a total of 39 major money laundering cases were recorded in Hong Kong, among which 7 cases were closely related to cryptocurrencies. Particularly notable is a suspicious transaction involving an amount as high as 1.8 billion Hong Kong dollars (approximately 229 million US dollars), highlighting the huge harm of cryptocurrency money laundering.
Cryptocurrency trading, based on blockchain technology, features decentralization, and transaction records are difficult to tamper with yet highly anonymous, posing unprecedented challenges to traditional financial regulation and law enforcement. In the past, when law enforcement agencies tracked the flow of funds, they could conduct investigations through the relatively clear account systems of traditional financial institutions such as banks. However, cryptocurrency transactions often deviated from these traditional regulatory channels, making it difficult to trace the source and destination of funds. For instance, on some small cryptocurrency trading platforms, lawbreakers can easily transfer and trade illegally obtained cryptocurrencies multiple times, concealing the true source of funds through complex trading paths and setting up numerous obstacles for law enforcement officers’ investigation work.
To effectively deal with this predicament, the Hong Kong Customs has decided to carry out in-depth cooperation with the University of Hong Kong. The University of Hong Kong has strong research capabilities and professional talent resources in fields such as computer science, data analysis, and blockchain technology research. Both sides expect that by integrating their respective advantages, the tracking tool they develop can accurately capture information on cryptocurrency transactions, achieve full monitoring of the transaction flow, and thereby provide strong investigation clues for law enforcement departments.
From a technical implementation perspective, this tracking tool may apply big data analysis technology to screen and analyze massive amounts of cryptocurrency transaction data. By establishing complex algorithm models, abnormal trading patterns are identified, such as frequent large transactions within a short period of time and situations where the flow of funds does not conform to the business logic of the trading entity. Meanwhile, with the traceability of blockchain technology, even if transaction records are encrypted, the flow trajectory of funds can be gradually restored along the blockchain chain through specific technical means. For instance, when suspicious transactions are detected at a certain cryptocurrency address, the tool can analyze the transaction relationships between this address and other addresses, draw up a detailed transaction map, and help law enforcement officers quickly identify the upstream and downstream related parties of the funds.
The Hong Kong Customs has been sparing no effort in the field of combating financial crimes. As early as 2023, the Hong Kong Customs upgraded the Wealth Investigation Division to the Wealth Investigation Division to deal with the constantly changing situation of money laundering crimes. The establishment of the Wealth Investigation Department has been expanded to include professional talents such as customs officers, Treasury accountants and accounting directors, conducting in-depth investigations into money laundering cases from multiple dimensions. In past work, the customs has successfully cracked many major money laundering cases, such as a large-scale multinational money laundering group case involving approximately 14 billion Hong Kong dollars, which was cracked in February 2024. Through long-term tracking and precise crackdown, the money laundering activities of the criminal group have been effectively curbed.
This collaboration with the University of Hong Kong to develop a tracking tool is another significant measure taken by the Hong Kong Customs in combating cryptocurrency money laundering. Once the tool is put into use, it is expected to greatly enhance the customs’ ability to identify and combat cryptocurrency money laundering crimes. It will provide the customs with real-time and accurate transaction data, helping the customs to promptly detect suspicious transaction behaviors, take prompt actions and cut off the flow chain of criminal funds. This will not only help protect Hong Kong’s financial system from the erosion of illegal funds and maintain the normal order of the financial market, but also enhance the international community’s confidence in Hong Kong’s financial regulatory capabilities and consolidate Hong Kong’s status as an international financial center.
At present, this cryptocurrency transaction tracking tool is still in the development stage, and the specific launch time and functional details have not been announced yet. However, the cooperation between the Hong Kong Customs and the University of Hong Kong undoubtedly brings new hope to the fight against cryptocurrency money laundering crimes. As the project progresses, all market participants are closely monitoring the development of this tool, expecting it to play a significant role in future financial regulation and law enforcement, and effectively curb the spread of cryptocurrency money laundering crimes.
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