The UK’s Insolvency Service (IS) has appointed its first dedicated cryptographic information specialist to enhance the agency’s ability to track and recover digital assets involved in bankruptcy cases. The move comes after the number of legal procedures in countries involving crypto assets has skyrocketed four times over the past five years, raising concerns about hidden or difficult-to-misunderstand wealth in enforcement work.
UK Abolition Services appoints former police economic crime investigators to help recover crypto assets
Andrew Small, a former police economic crime investigator, has been assigned to a role aimed at strengthening crypto tracing operations within the Insolvency Service’s investigation and enforcement services team. His expertise supports the agency’s efforts to recover money and digital assets held by bankrupt individuals and businesses, and helps track tokens involved in criminal cases.
Data from IS’ official recipient service shows that the UK has increased by 420% in crypto-related bankruptcy cases over the past five years, up from just 14 cases in 2019/20 to 59 cases in 2024/25. During that period, the estimated crypto assets identified increased from around 1,436 pounds (approximately $1,820) to 523,580 pounds (approximately $660,000), representing an incredible 364-fold increase.
Cryptocurrencies have become more popular in recent years, and a 2024 survey by the national financial watchdog agency Financial Conduct (FCA) found that around 7 million UK adults (12% of the population) carry some form of crypto assets. This number is up from 3.2 million investors in 2021, accounting for 4.4% of the population.
Andrew Small’s team within IS’s Investigation and Enforcement Services division will focus primarily on ownership of cryptocurrencies in criminal cases, such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Litecoin (LTC), and Memecoin (DogeCoin (Doge).
Neil Freeberry, the Intelligence Reporting Agency for Bankruptcy Services, said his role as an economic crime investigator within the police and “a wealth of knowledge” in his previous experience will help investigators dealing with cases where crypto assets are factors.
Following his appointment, Small issued a statement to the media, highlighting the “rapid rise” of UK crypto ownership, plus a similar increase in bankruptcy cases, including digital assets. He granted his obligation to track and collect money and assets from bankruptcy services individuals or businesses, and worked to return as much money as possible to his creditors.
Small also said that Crypto is a “highly recoverable asset” and will assist agents by providing “expertise” on the types of crypto assets available and the related technologies used to buy and sell and store them.
The UK government requires crypto companies to report their users’ personal and transaction information
This appointment illustrates a more aggressive and informed approach from IS to curb crypto assets that are not explained in bankruptcy and criminal cases. It also comes amid the wider driving forces in the UK to implement stricter regulations to tackle the challenges of Decentralized Finance (DEFI);
Last week, HM Revenue and Customs Department announced that crypto companies operating in the UK will need to collect and report user personal and transaction data from January 1, 2026.
This includes collecting the customer’s full name, home address, date of birth, country of residence, national insurance number, unique taxpayer reference (UK resident), and tax identification number (TIN). For businesses, trusts, and charities trading in cryptographic terms, the platform must collect the legal business name, main business address, registration number (UK companies), and TIN. In some cases, a platform is also required to collect details of the entities’ administrators.
You should also report sender and recipient information for all transactions, including name, address, tax ID, and full transaction details, including cryptocurrency used, amount of British pound, value, time stamp, etc.
The new data collection programme is part of the government’s integration of the Economic Cooperation and Development Proportion (OECD) Crypto Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) to improve transparency in crypto tax reporting. Authorities are encouraging crypto companies to start collecting customer data now to ensure compliance preparation.
The UK Treasury Department and Prime Minister Rachel Reeves introduced the bill in April to bring crypto exchanges, managers and broker-dealers within the government’s regulatory framework to combat fraud and fraud.
More news: US lawmakers require the SEC to disclose hidden documents regarding Ethereum security status
