Sweden’s Justice Minister, Gunnar Strömmer, has called on key government agencies, including the police, the Enforcement Authority, and the tax office, to step up efforts in confiscating crypto suspected of being linked to criminal activities.
The move follows a law passed in November 2024 that gives authorities the right to seize crypto assets, even without concrete evidence of a crime, if the owner can’t convincingly explain how they got them. Since the law took effect, the government has already confiscated the equivalent of $8.4 million, putting Sweden among the most aggressive European countries when it comes to going after unexplained wealth.
Strömmer stressed the need for better collaboration between government agencies, especially when it comes to high-value digital assets. He said the time had come to “increase the pressure,” pointing to growing concerns over how digital currencies are being used in Sweden’s criminal underworld.
In a report released in September last year by the Financial Intelligence Unit and the national police, some crypto exchanges were described as unofficial money laundering hubs. These platforms, the report said, help move profits from drug sales, scams, and other illegal schemes. The report also urged law enforcement to become more active on crypto platforms to spot and shut down these operations.
The Bloomsbury Intelligence and Security Institute data estimates that approximately 62,000 people in Sweden were involved in or connected to organized crime networks as of 2024. While concrete data on crypto-related offenses is limited, officials say the anonymity and global reach of digital currencies make them especially useful to criminals.
This likely explains why Strömmer is pushing for asset seizure laws to adapt to modern financial crimes. He argues that Sweden needs to treat digital wealth with the same seriousness as physical property when it comes to crime prevention.
One of the strongest voices backing Strömmer is Dennis Dioukarev, a Swedish Democrat and a longtime advocate of creating a national Bitcoin (BTC) reserve. Dioukarev argues that BTC and other cryptocurrencies taken from criminals should be given to the central bank, the Riksbank, to help strengthen the country’s financial standing. He sees it as a smart way to turn crime-fighting into long-term economic value.
Despite this enthusiasm, the government has not outlined what it plans to do with the confiscated digital assets. Strömmer’s office declined to comment on whether the crypto would be sold off, retained, or eventually added to a national reserve.
Prominent industry actors like MARA Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: MARA) are likely to applaud the efforts that different countries are taking to weed out criminal actors using crypto to fund or launder their illicit proceeds since criminal acts detract from the noble objectives of the crypto industry.
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