Manhattan DA pushes for regulations and tools to combat organized crime loopholes

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has called for more stringent measures to combat criminal activities involving cryptocurrencies. The District Attorney urged the state to criminalize and regulate unlicensed crypto operations, which have now grown to a $51 billion economy.

The official stated that the industry has grown and developed due to the presence of loopholes and blind spots in current regulations governing crypto activities. According to Bragg, the blind spot facilitates money laundering activities for drugs, fraud, and gun-related illegal activities.

Bragg emphasized that the issue requires urgency and categorized it as a second-term priority, alongside shoplifting and gun control. He demanded that regulators revisit regulations to close down loopholes that allow malicious actors to launder proceeds from criminal activities without facing prosecution.

Manhattan DA calls out unregulated crypto ATMs 

While speaking at New York Law School on Wednesday, Bragg focused on crypto ATMs and unlicensed crypto kiosks. According to the official, these outlets charge as high as 20% to convert “dirty” cash into digital assets. He said that the outlets know that criminals are laundering gun proceeds, but proceed to complete the transactions anyway.

Manhattan prosecutors have successfully cracked crypto-related criminal activities in the past, including a $5 million unlicensed Bitcoin ATM operation that had links to terrorism financing in Syria. However, he urged that the current systems heavily rely on criminals making mistakes, such as using their bank accounts or bragging on social media. He emphasized that clever criminals may get away with illegal activities.

He also urged lawmakers to make all crypto businesses obtain legal licences that permit their operations by saying that “if you are operating a crypto business, if you are transferring, trading, moving, whatever verb you wanna use, virtual currency, you should be licensed. It’s that simple.” 

Bragg emphasized that crypto entities should emulate banking infrastructure by employing customer KYC requirements for their users.

He explained that some crypto players have implemented KYC standards for their users. Still, the majority of the sector remains highly unregulated, despite reaching a market cap of more than $3 trillion. According to the DA, Manhattan will be the 19th state to ban unlicensed crypto operations.

Crypto crimes in New York have migrated from online scams to physical altercations alongside robbery with violence. On July 24, 2025, Cryptopolitan reported that two men had been arrested for kidnapping, torturing, and coercing an Italian national in Manhattan to gain access to his crypto address. Another July report noted that Asia had become a hotspot for physical and violent crypto attacks, including abduction.

Illicit crypto volume reaches an all-time high of $158 billion in 2025

A 2026 Crypto Crime Report, released on January 10 by TRM Labs, shows that illicit crypto volume in 2025 increased by nearly 145%, reaching an all-time high of $158 billion, up from $64 billion in 2024. 

The report highlighted that most of the volume increase came from a small number of large-scale hacks and enforcement-driven attributions. The report also highlighted that major geopolitical players prefer to use cryptocurrencies to circumvent international sanctions. Countries such as Iran and Venezuela relied on crypto for sanctions-constrained payments and financial services at scale.

The news comes after the New York Assembly reintroduced a bill targeting crypto prediction platforms such as Polymarket.

According to a previous report by Cryptopolitan, NY Assemblyman Clyde Vanel reintroduced a bill dubbed the ORACLE Act, which prohibits these platforms from offering sports betting, despite it being the most significant revenue source for prediction markets.

The legislation also seeks to ban prediction platforms from offering political markets, mass shootings, a person’s lifespan, or war.

The report referenced data from Dune Analytics, which revealed that sports betting accounted for 37% of Polymarket’s trading volume and 93% of the trading volume on the Kalshi prediction platform.

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