With the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) looking to regulate cryptocurrencies and digital assets and now the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation branch openly stating their fear of virtual currency’s use, it seems like the world of crypto might be witnessing some unfavorable moves from the government agencies.
IRS After Crypto and NFTs
As reported by Bloomberg, at a virtual event held on Tuesday by the USC Gould School of Law, Ryan Korner, IRS’ Criminal Investigation’s Los Angeles field office’s Special Agent said,
“We’re (the division) just seeing mountains and mountains of fraud in this area”.
The IRS CI division has been looking into the growth of crypto products and their usage not limited to payments and trading. The division stated that they see cryptocurrencies and NFTs being used for fraud, tax evasion, and even money laundering.
Furthermore, the increased involvement of celebrities in the crypto world has worried them further as these celebrities act as a direct link for a mainstream audience to crypto. And there is a fair chance that the unaware celebrities could be promoting a scam.
Just recently the likes of Kim Kardashian, Floyd Mayweather, and Paul Pierce were sued for participating in a pump and dump scheme called EtheruemMax which lost over 97% of its value in hours.
IRS CI also said that these cryptocurrencies can be easily manipulated by a powerful investor at the ease of a simple tweet. Although they didn’t care…
