British tax will track dubious cryptocurrency transactions

The UK Department of Taxes and Customs Duties (HMRC) intends to use specialized analytical tools that will help to identify illegal activities in the field of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. About this writes PublicTechnology.

In particular, the British tax service intends to analyze transactions regarding the use of cryptocurrencies for tax evasion and money laundering.

HMRC focuses on seven digital assets: Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Ethereum Classic (ETC), XRP, Litecoin (LTC) and Tether stablecoin (USDT). At the same time, the agency is also interested in tools that could track the so-called private coins: Monero (XMR), Zcash (ZEC) and DASH.

According to the publication, the tax service is ready to spend £ 100,000 ($ 130,000) on licensing an instrument in favor of which a choice will be made. Proposals from interested parties will be accepted until January 31, and as early as February 17, a formal contract with a solution provider may begin to operate.

Among the most likely candidates for this role are companies such as the American Chainalysis and CipherTrace, as well as the British Elliptic. The latter closed the Series B financing round in September 2019, following which it raised $ 23 million, including from the Japanese corporation SBI Holdings.

Elliptic also recently created a database of cryptocurrency exchanges, which includes information about 200 different trading platforms. This information is expected to make traditional banks more loyal to the crypto industry.