The NCA intends to develop internal intelligence capabilities to proactively identify crypto-related crimes. This shift aims to reduce the agency's reliance on external referrals from cryptocurrency exchanges, blockchain analytics firms, and other third-party sources.
The agency's 2026 National Strategic Assessment of Serious and Organised Crime highlighted the use of crypto products by criminals for evasion and the large-scale movement of illicit funds. The NCA is specifically focusing on money laundering, sanctions evasion, and financial transactions related to ransomware.
This strategy is linked to Operation Destabilise, an investigation into cash-to-crypto laundering networks associated with Russian-speaking organized crime. Since 2022, this operation has resulted in 129 arrests and the seizure of more than £25 million in cash and cryptoassets.
The NCA estimates that over £100 billion is laundered through the UK annually. While the specific share of cryptoassets in this total is not specified, their placement as the third-highest priority among nine economic crime system priorities released in July 2025 indicates their growing importance.