Chinese prosecutors' official account: Handling virtual currency money laundering cases should focus on wallet addresses as a breakthrough point

The WeChat public account of the Chinese prosecutor published an article titled "Research on Foreign-Related Cases | Key Points for Cross-Border Electronic Evidence Collection in Virtual Currency Money Laundering Crimes," which pointed out that when handling virtual currency money laundering cases, one should use the virtual currency wallet address as a breakthrough point, apply blockchain technology to analyze on-chain data characteristics and the flow of funds, and identify money laundering activities conducted through virtual currencies to achieve precise strikes.

The article proposed that the evidence collection model should be built around two core proof elements: identity relevance and transaction relevance, establishing a "domestic evidence collection as the basis, cross-border evidence collection as a supplement" approach, and standardizing the applicable boundaries of unilateral evidence collection and bilateral judicial assistance to enhance the efficiency of cross-border evidence collection.

For third-party entities such as exchanges, wallet service providers, and payment channels, the article suggested establishing "elemental" retrieval standards, focusing on obtaining KYC information and change records, login logs, device and IP information, two-factor authentication records, deposit and withdrawal records, on-chain addresses, transaction hashes, as well as risk control and freezing records, to establish the relationship of "address---account---natural person."