Bit2Me forms Bit2Shield to aid crypto asset tracing for police
Regulation & Gov ·
The Spanish exchange has created a dedicated team to support law enforcement agencies in following and recovering digital assets tied to criminal cases.
Bit2Me has stood up a new internal division, Bit2Shield, tasked with assisting police and other government bodies in tracing cryptocurrency linked to illicit activity, according to Coindesk. The unit builds on work the company has already been doing informally, having helped facilitate €1.5M in crypto seizures for authorities so far in 2025.
The move places Bit2Me among a small but growing set of crypto firms formalizing cooperation with regulators and investigators rather than treating such requests case by case. Rather than fielding ad hoc law enforcement inquiries, the exchange is now channeling that work through a specialized team built specifically to support asset tracking and recovery efforts.
The launch fits into a broader pattern of enforcement activity across the crypto sector this year, where seizures have moved from isolated headline cases toward a more routine feature of how digital assets intersect with the legal system. A general explainer on the topic notes that seizure in crypto covers a range of government, court, and protocol actions that freeze or take custody of assets such as BTC and USDT, often through civil forfeiture frameworks that treat the asset itself as the subject of a legal claim rather than requiring a criminal charge against its holder, as outlined in leviathan.news's overview of the mechanism.
That same overview points to parallel developments illustrating how seizure functions across jurisdictions, including Ukraine's transfer of $8.3M in seized USDT into state custody and a separate legal effort targeting $344M in OFAC-frozen USDT tied to sanctions enforcement. These cases, alongside Bit2Me's new unit, reflect the increasing institutionalization of crypto asset recovery, where exchanges, courts, and government agencies are building more structured channels for identifying and reclaiming illicit funds.
What remains unclear is the scope of Bit2Shield's mandate going forward, including which jurisdictions or agencies it will primarily serve and whether the €1.5M in 2025 seizures represents the bulk of Bit2Me's prior enforcement assistance or only a partial figure. Also unaddressed is how the unit's work will be resourced or audited, and whether other exchanges will follow with similarly dedicated law enforcement liaison teams.