  The entry of new technological infrastructures into the financial markets
poses serious concerns about the misuse of the economic system for illicit
purposes, such as money laundering and financing of terrorism. Although there
are cases in which this connection has already been discovered by malicious
actors, distributed ledger technologies can nevertheless represent a powerful
tool at the disposal of competent authorities to trace illicit flows and to
better monitor risks in financial markets. However, this possibility may go
through an interdisciplinary analysis of the phenomena. The search for
alternative systems to move funds, rather than the traditional financial
intermediaries, such as banks, is not a new circumstance and not necessarily
for criminal purposes. Nevertheless, some of the already-known value transfer
systems may benefit from the use of distributed ledger technology and make
their detection more difficult. The European institutions are discussing the
needed legislative packages to enforce the current regulations and to extend
their application to the crypto space, as well as the establishment of a new
competent authority.
