Mr. Anthony A Marcantonio

With technological advances comes new opportunity for bad actors to commit crimes. The purpose of this paper was to detail the correlation between cryptocurrency, money laundering, and terrorist financing. This paper compiles criminological literature and government legislation to provide a high-level overview of current issues surrounding cryptocurrency money laundering and terrorist financing. This paper discusses the Dark Web and cryptocurrency’s role in black markets. This paper covers terrorism, its impact on national security and economic stability, and how terrorist organizations utilize cryptocurrency. This research paper reviews current anti-money laundering legislation and discusses how these legislations impact the cryptocurrency market. Furthermore, though there is a preconceived notion that cryptocurrency transactions are anonymous, compiled literature implies that the opposite is true. This paper expresses the importance of information sharing and worldwide communication regarding money laundering and terrorist financing. Moreover, the literature illustrates that legislation can only prevent and empower detection to an extent. Financial institutions have a responsibility to detect money laundering and terrorist financing and report these suspicions to the government. Finally, this paper recommends that researchers explore the efficacy of anti-money laundering and terrorist financing legislation, average funds laundered per transaction, and the use of shell companies. With additional research, legislators and practitioners may be able to increase prevention and detection abilities for money laundering and terrorist financing.