Sharp increase in crypto payments for online child sexual abuse footage: FIU
Cryptocurrencies are playing an increasingly crucial role in facilitating money flows, according to the 2025 annual report by the Dutch Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). The agency marked an alarming increase in the volume of crypto payments for online child sexual abuse images. It also warned that payments often go to companies outside Europe, making them difficult to track.
The FIU collects information from “financial gatekeepers” like banks, trust offices, notaries, and crypto service providers for the Dutch law enforcement agencies. In 2025, it noticed a significant increase in payments made with cryptocurrencies to purchase child sexual abuse images.
The agency attributed the increase partly to providers of blockchain analysis tools giving child sexual abuse investigations more priority last year. In cooperation with the Internet Watch Foundation, these providers labeled crypto addresses linked to child sex abuse images as such, and reported crypto transactions to these addresses to the FIU. “Although crypto is often viewed as an anonymous means of payment, the transactions can be effectively traced using blockchain analysis tools,” the FIU said.
Cryptocurrencies’ use increased across criminal activities last year, the FIU said. “The crypto sector is becoming more vulnerable to crime,” FIU sector specialist Rebecca van Essen told the Financeele Dagblad. According to her, this is partly due to the wider adoption of this form of currency and its reputation.
“A few years ago, cryptocurrencies were mainly for enthusiasts. Nowadays, a great many people own them. Crime in the sector is growing accordingly.” She noted that many crypto users think that they operate completely anonymously, but that is by no means the case. Crypto service providers and law enforcement agencies have increasingly sophisticated analysis tools to track crypto transactions.
The FIU noted that the international structure of the criminal organizations that use cryptocurrencies complicates its work. At the end of 2024, Europe Union implemented uniform crypto legislation, meaning that crypto service providers can serve the entire European market with a license in a single EU Member State. The local regulator carries out checks, which have resulted in a significant decrease in the number of reports of potentially illegal payments in the Netherlands.
In the EU, there is good cooperation with FIUs from other Member States. But investigations into global crypto payments regularly run into limitations, Van Essen told FD. “We receive many reports that Dutch citizens are transferring money to unlicensed crypto service providers. These providers are located in a country with which we do not have a good relationship, or they have no registered office at all.”
