The US Congress has recently passed a bill to support a study on how cryptocurrency can contribute to sex and drug trafficking. The bipartisan bill passed on Jan. 28, under the title “the Fight Illicit Networks and Detect (FIND) Trafficking Act of 2019 (H.R. 502).”

Sponsored by Representative Juan Vargas, the bill will require the Comptroller General of the US to investigate the impact of cryptocurrencies on the illegal market for drugs and sex trafficking.

Vargas told Roll Call, a Washington DC-based political newspaper, that in order to efficiently come up with an authoritative solution, we must ‘fully study and analyze how virtual currencies and online marketplaces are used to facilitate sex and drug trafficking, to determine how best to eliminate their use.’ While the rapid changes in the crypto market might be a payment method for sex and drug trafficking, its underlying problems and potential answers are still unknown.