The Insolvency Service (IS) of the United Kingdom has appointed its first dedicated crypto intelligence specialist to enhance the agency’s ability to trace and recover digital assets involved in bankruptcy cases. The move comes after the number of legal proceedings in the country involving crypto assets surged fourfold over the past five years, and growing concerns over hidden or difficult-to-trace wealth in enforcement work.
UK Insolvency Service Appoints Former Police Economic Crime Investigator to Aid in Crypto Asset Recovery
Andrew Small, a former economic crime investigator with the police, has been assigned to the role aimed at bolstering crypto-tracing operations within the Insolvency Service’s Investigations and Enforcement Services team. His expertise will support the agency’s efforts to recover money and digital assets held by bankrupt individuals or companies and aid in tracking tokens involved in criminal cases.
Data from the Official Receiver Service of the IS shows that the UK has seen a 420% rise in crypto-linked insolvency cases in the past five years, climbing from just 14 cases in 2019/20 to 59 in 2024/25. During that period, the estimated value of crypto assets identified has risen from approximately £1,436 (around $1,820) to £523,580 (about $660,000), representing a staggering 364-fold increase.
Cryptocurrencies have soared in popularity in recent years, with a 2024 research by the country’s financial watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), discovering that around 7 million British adults – 12% of the population – now hold some form of crypto assets. This number is up from 3.2 million investors in 2021, which represented 4.4% of the population.
Andrew Small’s team within the IS’s Investigation and Enforcement Services division will primarily focus on crypto asset ownership in criminal cases, including popular cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Litecoin (LTC), memecoins like Dogecoin (DOGE), as well as non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Neil Freebury, head of intelligence at the Insolvency Service, said that Small’s “wealth of knowledge” in the role and his previous experience as an economic crime investigator within the police will help investigators dealing with cases where crypto assets are a factor.
Following his appointment, Small released a statement to the press highlighting the “rapid rise” in crypto ownership in the UK, and alongside that, a similar rise in bankruptcy cases involving digital assets. He acknowledged the Insolvency Service’s duty to trace and recover money and assets from individuals or companies in insolvency proceedings, and work to return as much money owed to creditors as possible.
Small also noted that crypto is a “very much recoverable asset,” and he will help the agency by providing “specialist knowledge” about the type of crypto assets available and the associated technology used to buy, sell, and store them.
UK Government Mandates Crypto Firms to Report Users’ Personal and Transaction Information
The appointment signals a more aggressive and informed approach from the IS to claw back crypto assets that haven’t been accounted for in bankruptcy and criminal proceedings. It also comes amid a broader push in the UK to enforce tighter regulations to grapple with the challenges of decentralized finance (DeFi).
Last week, the HM Revenue and Customs department announced that crypto firms operating in the UK will be required to collect and report their users’ personal and transaction data, starting January 1, 2026.
This will include collecting the customer’s full name, home address, date of birth, country of residence, National Insurance number, Unique Taxpayer Reference (for UK residents), and the tax identification number (TIN). For companies, trusts, and charities transacting in crypto, the platforms must collect the legal business name, main business address, registration number (for UK firms), and TIN, along with details about the issuing country (for non-UK firms). In some cases, the platforms are also required to gather details of the entity’s controlling persons.
They must also report sender and recipient information for every transaction, including names, addresses, tax IDs, and full trade details, such as the cryptocurrency used, its quantity, value in British pounds, and timestamp.
The new data collection program is part of the government’s integration of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development-proposed (OECD) Cryptoasset Reporting Framework (CARF) to improve transparency in crypto tax reporting. Authorities are encouraging crypto firms to start collecting customer data now to ensure compliance readiness.
The UK’s Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, introduced a draft bill in April to bring crypto exchanges, custodians, and broker-dealers within the government’s regulatory framework to combat scams and fraud.
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