Crypto Playing ‘Growing Role’ in Crime Across Western Balkans: NGO

By: cryptonews|2025/05/15 20:45:04
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Criminals are making increasing use of cryptocurrency in Western Balkan nations such as Albania and Serbia, according to research from the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC). Writing in one of two new risk bulletins for this month, the Geneva-based NGO found that seizing illicitly sourced crypto remains a big challenge in the Balkans, with Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia home to “only three documented cases of crypto asset seizures” to date. The bulletin explained that the illegal use of crypto has grown in tandem with more legitimate uses, as transaction volumes in the region sit somewhere between $25 billion and $30 billion. It’s in this context that Montenegro has become a major European node for the use of crypto on darknet marketplaces, while using crypto to launder the proceeds of drug trafficking has grown in recent years in Albania and Serbia, as per an earlier GI-TOC bulletin from December. Sasa Djordjevic, GI-TOC’s senior analyst for the Western Balkans, told Decrypt that cryptocurrencies are “playing a growing role in criminal activity in the Western Balkans,” with the region also seeing a growth in use for fraud and illegal crypto-mining. “Drug trafficking groups are increasingly using crypto to move and hide their profits,” he said. “Some suspicious transactions linked to criminal networks from the Western Balkans are worth tens of millions of euros, often routed through crypto wallets and reinvested into legal businesses.” Djordjevic also notes that such patterns tend to mirror known cocaine trafficking routes from Latin America to Europe, while GI-TOC has observed connections between criminal actors in the Western Balkans and darknet markets such as Hydra, prior to its shutdown in 2022. A growing problem GI-TOC’s latest bulletin suggests that illicit usage will continue growing in the region, given that local authorities are struggling to keep up with such usage in terms of regulations, technical expertise and cross-border cooperation. “Currently, only three out of six Western Balkan countries have adopted laws on digital assets, and implementation has yet to begin in one of them,” explained Djordjevic. The three countries Djordjevic is referring to here are Albania, Serbia and Kosovo, the latter of which introduced cryptocurrency legislation in November—but the bylaws necessary for implementation have not yet been adopted. “Although the EU’s MiCA regulation offers a path toward stronger oversight, full and consistent implementation across the region remains challenging, as the Western Balkans are not yet part of the EU,” he added. “Until regulatory and enforcement capacities are strengthened, the region will remain vulnerable to illicit crypto activity.” As mentioned above, the Western Balkans has only three documented cases of crypto seizure, all of which occurred in the last couple of years. The most recent of these involved the seizure of assets belonging to an Albanian crime syndicate, which was the target of an operation between November 2024 and January 2025. Working in conjunction with an unidentified stablecoin operator and a major crypto-exchange, forces from Albania, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Europol seized the gang’s cash, bank accounts and other property, including hardware wallets containing $10 million in cryptocurrencies. Playing catch-up However, such examples are still few and far between, and for Djordjevic and GI-TOC, the situation won’t improve until the region’s authorities catch up with the pace of change. This not only means that governments should “adopt and enforce clear regulations” for tracing and seizing illicit crypto, but that law enforcement must “invest in advanced blockchain tools” and specialized training. “Implementing FATF recommendations and EU rules on crypto remains key, particularly for countries previously on the FATF grey list,” Djordjevic said, adding that closer cooperation with Europol, Interpol and other national agencies is also a necessity.

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On March 4, 2026, DDC Enterprise Limited (NYSE American: DDC) today announced preliminary, unaudited full-year financial performance for the year ended December 31, 2025. The company expects to achieve record revenue and record positive adjusted EBITDA, primarily driven by continued growth in its core consumer food business and overall margin improvement. The final audited financial report is expected to be released in mid-April 2026.


2025 Full-Year Financial Highlights


Revenue: Expected to be between $39 million and $41 million, reaching a new company high.


Organic Growth: Excluding the impact of the company's strategic contraction of its U.S. operations, core revenue is expected to grow 11% to 17% year over year.


Gross Profit Margin: Expected to be between 28% and 30%, reflecting continued operational efficiency improvements.


Adjusted EBITDA: The company expects to achieve a positive full-year result in 2025, a significant improvement from a $3.5 million loss in 2024, mainly due to rigorous cost controls and a higher-margin sales mix.


Core Consumer Food Business Performance


In 2025, DDC's core consumer food business maintained strong operational performance.


The company also disclosed Core Consumer Food Business Adjusted EBITDA, a metric that further excludes costs related to its Bitcoin reserve strategy and non-cash fair value adjustments related to its Bitcoin holdings from adjusted EBITDA to more accurately reflect the core business performance.


In 2025, Core Consumer Food Business Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be between $5.5 million and $6 million.


Bitcoin Reserve Update


In the first half of 2025, DDC initiated a long-term Bitcoin accumulation strategy, holding Bitcoin as its primary reserve asset.


As of December 31, 2025: The company holds 1,183 BTC.


As of February 28, 2026: Holdings increased to 2,118 BTC


Today's additional purchase of 65 BTC brings the company's total holdings to 2,183 BTC


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Adjusted EBITDA Definition
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