Binance, one of the world's largest crypto exchanges, 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 the gaps in Web3 technologies that could help them catch criminals. With the crypto sector expanding into the $2.47 trillion (roughly Rs. 2,06,31,292 crore) industry that it is today, the number and types of crypto crimes have seen growth across the globe. Because the industry is considerably young, 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 Macao Judicial Police had invited Binance to train agents who are part of the Criminal Investigation Department and the Economic Crimes Investigation Department related to games, according to Binance's statement.
A total of 40 agents attended the training course, led by Carlos Mak, a specialist from Binance's internal research team.
“This approach sharpens our team's skills and familiarizes them with techniques to counter virtual asset crimes. We appreciate Binance's willingness to voluntarily share its valuable knowledge on blockchain and virtual asset investigations, and we look forward to more cooperation in the future,” the Macao Judicial Police spokesman was quoted as saying in commenting on the development.
Macau is among those places in Asia where the Web3 and gambling sectors are neither unknown nor unpopular.
As of early May this year, Macau authorities had recorded 351 gambling-related crimes between January and March this year, a 122 percent increase in cases, with a total of 193 cases. In 2023, the gaming-related crime rate in the region also increased by 110 percent compared to 2022.
In the context of these increasing cases, Macau law enforcement officers found it necessary to acquire the appropriate training to handle such cases.
As for Binance, it claims to have conducted more than 120 online and offline training sessions with law enforcement last year globally.
“Deepening cooperation with the global law enforcement community is the foundation of Binance's relentless commitment to protecting users and building a secure online financial environment,” Mak commented on the development.
Last month, Binance's rival crypto exchange Coinbase also launched an education and awareness initiative called “Tech Against Scam” to inform the tech community about ways to protect themselves against online fraud and deception .
Other cryptocurrency-related companies such as Chainalysis and Certified Cryptocurrency Investigator are also running similar training courses to help law enforcement officers identify and investigate Web3-related crimes around blockchain, cryptocurrency, metaverse and NFTs.
