Binance, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, recently sent a team of officials to meet with law enforcement officials in Macau. The purpose of this meeting was to train officers to understand vulnerabilities in Web3 technologies that could support them catch criminals. With the expansion of the cryptocurrency sector into the $2.47 trillion (approximately Rs. 2,06,31,292 crore) industry that it is today, the number and types of cryptocurrency-related crimes have seen an augment across the globe. Because the sector is relatively teenage, law enforcement agencies around the world have experienced problems in Web3-related investigations.
The exchange released official details about this training session on Thursday, May 13. The Macau Judicial Police invited Binance to train officers from the Department of Criminal Investigations and the Department of Investigation of Economic Crimes Related to Gaming, it said statement from Binance.
A total of 40 officers took part in the training conducted by Carlos Mak, a specialist from Binance’s internal investigation team.
“This approach improves the skills of our team and familiarizes them with techniques for counteracting crimes related to virtual assets. We appreciate Binance’s willingness to voluntarily share invaluable insights into blockchain and virtual asset investigations and look forward to further cooperation in the future,” the post quoted a Macau Judicial Police spokesman commenting on the development.
Macau is one of those locations in Asia where the Web3 and gaming sectors are neither unknown nor unpopular.
In early May this year, Macau authorities did just that supposedly between January and March this year, it recorded 351 gambling-related crimes, an augment in the number of cases by 122%, to a total of 193 cases. The region also saw a gaming crime rate in 2023 supposedly increased by 110 percent compared to 2022.
In the context of the increasing number of cases, law enforcement officers in Macau found it necessary to receive appropriate training in handling such cases.
As for Binance, it claims to have conducted over 120 online and offline training sessions with law enforcement officials on a global level last year.
“Deepening collaboration with the global law enforcement community is at the heart of Binance’s unwavering commitment to protecting users and building a safe and sound and secure online financial environment,” Mak was quoted as saying, commenting on the development.
Last month, rival cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase also launched an education and awareness initiative called “Tech Against Scam” to inform the tech community about ways to protect themselves against fraud and scams online.
Other cryptocurrency-related companies such as Chainalytic and Certified Cryptocurrency Investigator are also hosting similar training courses to support law enforcement agencies identify and investigate Web3-related crimes around blockchain, cryptocurrency, the metaverse, and NFTs.
