CryptoBriefing
The Parliament calls for better data-sharing between national authorities and EU agencies, as well as additional resources for the EPPO to investigate serious cross-border corruption.
Fri 9 Oct 2026 · 08:36 EDT · 2 min read
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The European Parliament has identified crypto assets as a potential channel for concealing criminal proceeds, calling for stronger measures to trace, freeze, confiscate and recover illicit funds under the European Union’s first anti-corruption strategy.
Members of the European Parliament on Thursday adopted a resolution outlining priorities for the European Commission’s forthcoming strategy, including tighter rules on political financing and conflicts of interest, stronger cross-border investigations and greater accountability.
The initiative follows the EU anti-corruption directive’s entry into force in May 2026 and aims to address emerging threats linked to organized crime and new technologies.
The resolution calls for common standards on gifts, sponsored travel, asset declarations, lobbying and revolving doors, alongside stronger safeguards for public procurement, grants and political funding.
Parliament also wants national authorities to share more data with EU agencies, including Europol, Eurojust, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) and the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF). It further calls for additional EPPO resources to investigate serious cross-border corruption.
MEPs also highlighted crypto assets and opaque ownership structures as potential obstacles to tracing criminal proceeds, while reiterating their call to phase out investor residence schemes known as golden visas.
Wojciech Kaszycki, strategy adviser to Bitcoin treasury company BTCS S.A., said the resolution is non-binding and will have little immediate impact on licensed crypto businesses.
Kaszycki, who founded crypto payments company Mobilum and holds an ACAMS certification in crypto asset anti-financial crime, argued that regulated firms already freeze assets when law enforcement requests them and that crypto transactions can be more traceable than conventional transfers.
“Crypto is the most traceable money ever built,” Kaszycki said. “Chainalysis puts illicit flows below 1% of on-chain volume, and 84% of that moves in stablecoins, which issuers can already freeze with one transaction. Tether alone has frozen more than $4 billion. Meanwhile, the Parliament’s own biggest corruption scandal was about bags of cash, not Bitcoin.”
For Kaszycki, the greater concern is the possibility of ESMA gaining authority to order asset freezes on “reasonable grounds” without judicial approval.
“A freeze needs a deadline, judicial review and liability for mistakes. Without that, Europe will not push crime out of crypto. It will push honest users out of regulated platforms, into self-custody and offshore venues,” the expert warned.
Disclosure: This article was edited by John Chen. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
