Argentina trains prosecutors to trace and seize crypto assets

Argentina’s Public Prosecutor’s Office has trained prosecutors, officials and staff to trace, analyse and seize virtual assets as cryptocurrency plays a larger role in criminal investigations across the country.

The Ministerio Público Fiscal, or MPF, said it held a specialised course titled “Virtual Assets: Financial Analysis, Tracing, Detection and Seizure” as part of its optional academic programme, with sessions conducted remotely on Aug. 19 and Sept. 2.

The training was restricted to employees, officials and magistrates within the institution and focused on the technical knowledge required when digital assets become part of financial or criminal investigations.

Carmen Chena, a lawyer specialising in anti-money laundering controls, led the sessions through Zoom. The programme covered financial analysis of digital wallets, cryptocurrency tracing, asset recovery and the legal procedures available when investigators seek to restrict or seize digital funds.

Argentina prosecutors study crypto tracing and seizures

The course began with changes in asset recovery methods created by virtual assets before moving into financial and patrimonial analysis of digital wallets.

Participants studied Argentina’s domestic legal framework alongside international rules governing virtual assets and examined the structure of the cryptocurrency ecosystem. The programme covered different methods for imposing precautionary measures on digital funds and used practical cases to show how such procedures can work during an investigation.

For the MPF, the subject falls within its role as an independent institution in Argentina’s justice system. The agency promotes judicial action in defence of legality and the general interests of society, while one of its central responsibilities is directing public criminal investigations.

Crypto tracing has already become part of several major Argentine cases, requiring investigators to follow transactions across wallets, blockchain networks and exchanges.

In July, an Argentine judge ordered the identification of people behind 25 cryptocurrency wallets connected to the $LIBRA investigation and ordered assets linked to the addresses frozen.

Investigators had reconstructed movements involving millions of dollars across several blockchain networks. A report from the Cybercrime Technical Department of the Argentine Federal Police found that four of eight wallets identified as belonging to the Libra Team had consolidated funds into a single address.

Authorities later traced 498,539 USDT transferred through a cross-chain protocol to a wallet on the Tron network. The receiving address divided the funds into 17 transactions, while investigators identified transfers involving Binance, Bybit, OKX and Bitfinex.

The court sought know-your-customer records, IP addresses, transaction histories and other information that could help identify people behind the transactions.

$LIBRA probe has required extensive wallet analysis

The $LIBRA case has given Argentine investigators a recent example of the technical work required when crypto assets move through several addresses and trading platforms.

Crypto.news previously reported in July that investigators were examining roughly $8.2 million that had remained dormant before moving again in May through wallets placed under judicial scrutiny.

The investigation stems from the February 2025 launch of LIBRA, a token promoted on social media by Argentine President Javier Milei. Its price climbed rapidly following Milei’s post before collapsing, triggering criminal and civil investigations into the people involved with the project.

Phone records reviewed by prosecutors later showed that Milei had seven calls with an entrepreneur connected to LIBRA around the time of his social media post. Investigators did not disclose what was discussed during the calls.

Milei has denied wrongdoing and previously said his involvement was limited to sharing information about what he understood to be a private project supporting the Argentine economy.

The judicial investigation has continued to examine financial relationships, communications and transactions associated with LIBRA. Prosecutors have had to analyse both conventional records and blockchain activity as they reconstruct the movement of funds linked to the token.

Such investigations can require authorities to identify wallet addresses, establish links between addresses and individuals, follow assets when they move between blockchains and obtain customer records when funds pass through centralised exchanges.

Those subjects overlap with the MPF course, which specifically covered financial analysis of digital wallets, tracing methods, precautionary measures and asset seizure procedures.

Argentine courts have previously frozen stablecoins

Argentina’s justice system had already used crypto tracing and asset restrictions before the LIBRA investigation.

In December 2024, an Argentine court seized a USDT wallet containing approximately $3.5 million during an investigation into Rainbowex, an alleged trading Ponzi scheme.

Authorities froze cryptocurrency wallets and bank accounts connected to the case, while experts from Argentine crypto platform Lemon and blockchain forensic firms Chainalysis and Qlue provided technical support to trace the funds.

More than 15 raids were carried out across Argentina as part of the Rainbowex investigation, and at least four people were arrested. Authorities worked with Interpol to locate individuals from Malaysia suspected of involvement in creating and operating the platform.

Rainbowex had offered investors daily returns of between 1% and 2%, with the alleged scheme affecting people in San Pedro, Buenos Aires.

Argentine courts have dealt with other disputes involving the recovery of cryptocurrency. In 2022, a court ordered Binance to return Bitcoin to the victim of a theft, another example of judicial authorities dealing directly with digital assets held or transferred through crypto platforms.

The MPF’s training comes as cryptocurrency use has remained substantial in Argentina. Stablecoins accounted for 94% of peso-denominated cryptocurrency trading volume in data published by a16z Crypto on Aug. 30 using figures from Artemis.

The analysis estimated that roughly one in five Argentines uses cryptocurrency, while downloads of the country’s 15 leading crypto applications increased 93% during 2024 compared with the previous year.

Argentina has formalised oversight of crypto providers

Crypto businesses operating in Argentina have faced a more defined registration and compliance system as authorities bring virtual asset providers within existing financial oversight structures.

The National Securities Commission, known locally as the CNV, maintains the country’s Virtual Asset Service Provider registry. Companies admitted to the system must comply with requirements connected to anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing controls.

Bitget, for example, secured VASP registration in Argentina in June, bringing the exchange within the country’s regulatory framework for cryptocurrency service providers.

Registered businesses are subject to reporting and compliance obligations involving Argentina’s Financial Information Unit and other relevant authorities.

At the same time, cryptocurrency activity has extended into products being developed by traditional financial groups. In July, BIND Group and Petersen Group were developing peso stablecoins through separate digital-asset businesses for uses including programmable payments, treasury operations, collateral management and onchain settlement.

For prosecutors investigating transactions within that expanding ecosystem, the MPF course covered both the national and international rules applicable to virtual assets, alongside the practical methods used to analyse wallets, trace transactions and apply precautionary measures to cryptocurrency funds.