Dubbed the Western Canada Cryptocurrency Investigative Center, a joint task force comprising investigators from the Calgary Police Department and analysts from blockchain data firm Chainalysis officially launched on April 12.
"This demonstration of public-private partnerships to solve new problems in financial services is a model that the rest of the world can learn from," said Chainalysis co-founder and chief strategy officer Jonathan Levin in a blog post announcing the partnership. The new center will expand on ongoing efforts to tackle the expanding range of cryptocurrency-related crime in Western Canada.
According to data from Chainalysis, cryptocurrency adoption in Canada has surged. According to the company’s blog post, “When we looked at Canada’s interaction with cryptocurrency ATMs, decentralized exchanges, and centralized exchanges, we found that since 2019, Canada has grown by nearly 213% through January 2023. , the peak adoption rate is about 865% higher in May 2021 than in March 2019, mainly driven by interest in DeFi."
However, this rapid growth has been accompanied by an increase in crime. Chainalysis reports that over $41 million will be lost to cryptocurrency scams in Canada in 2022 alone. It also noted that “every 1,000 Canadians had at least $1,144 exposure to illicit cryptocurrency activity” during the same period.
The Calgary Police Department plans to leverage Chainalysis’ private sector expertise to enhance its investigator training program and provide officers with “24/7 case support,” according to a blog post. According to Chainalysis, next steps include expanding the program to serve more law enforcement agencies in Western Canada. The company intends to eventually "roll the concept globally, working with law enforcement officials around the world to deliver custom, tailored products based on unique local needs."
