Brazilian police recently dismantled a major case. A criminal gang of 14 members was heavily sentenced by the court, with prison terms ranging from 10 to 21 years, because they laundered nearly 100 million dollars in dirty money using Bitcoin.

The methods used by this group are actually not new—converting illegal income into BTC, and then using various on-chain transactions and mixing services to "clean" the money. But the problem is the scale is too large; the flow of funds amounting to 95 million dollars was ultimately targeted by law enforcement. Brazilian authorities discovered during the investigation that these funds were involved in multiple criminal activities, and cryptocurrency became their main tool for transferring illicit funds.

After the verdict was announced, many people began to discuss an old question: Are cryptocurrencies with strong anonymity a financial innovation or a breeding ground for crime? In fact, both are not contradictory. The technology itself is neutral; the key is who uses it and how. This harsh sentencing by the Brazilian court also sends a signal - countries are continuously strengthening their crackdown on cryptocurrency crimes, and on-chain data tracking technology is becoming increasingly mature. The difficulty of evading legal sanctions with virtual currencies is no longer as low as it was in the early years.

For ordinary users, this is also a reminder: don't think that blockchain equals a lawless land. Compliance is always the top priority.