India’s Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has identified a significant shift in the financial methods used by transnational smuggling syndicates. According to a recent agency report, criminal networks are increasingly abandoning traditional, informal hawala networks in favor of digital stablecoins, with Tether (USDT) cited as a primary instrument. The DRI warns that the pseudo-anonymous and borderless nature of these digital assets presents a formidable new challenge for law enforcement and financial monitoring systems. Unlike the physical trust-based hawala system, stablecoin transactions can be executed rapidly across jurisdictions, complicating the tracking of illicit fund flows. This evolution underscores the urgent need for regulatory frameworks and investigative techniques to adapt to the digital age, ensuring that advancements in financial technology are not co-opted by criminal enterprises seeking to obscure their operations and profits.
