Ireland’s Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) has revealed that organized crime groups are renting private security boxes to store hardware wallets, seed phrases, and private keys, creating a gap between what investigators can see on-chain and what they can actually seize. CAB Chief Bureau Officer Michael Gubbins noted that the current legal framework, designed for traditional assets, does not allow for the effective freezing of digital assets secured by off-chain credentials. In March 2026, the bureau successfully accessed a wallet containing 500 BTC, worth approximately €30 million at the time, as part of a larger haul of 6,000 BTC seized in 2019. The CAB confirmed that cryptocurrency volatility enhances their appeal for laundering operations and disclosed that it has sold roughly €6.5 million in seized digital assets over the past decade.
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