Identity ‘cat and mouse’ on the blockchain

Christian Toms (+44 (0)20 7851 6009, ctoms@brownrudnick.com) is a partner at Brown Rudnick in London, where he has experience in a wide range of disputes, particularly those arising from complex financial arrangements and investments.

For fraudsters seeking to launder their illicit gains, cryptoassets present both the advantage of anonymity, or at least pseudonymity, and the downside that transactions are recorded on the blockchain. And while methods are emerging to make public ledger records harder to track, investigatory technology is in hot pursuit. The online and decentralised model “in fact gives rise to some particularly interesting avenues for those entrusted with the chase”, writes Christian Toms of Brown Rudnick.