Bitcoin has become the currency of choice for cybercriminals. Its distinctive characteristics of decentralisation and pseudo-anonymity are also attractive to criminal actors in general, and yet Bitcoin has been assessed as representing only a low money laundering risk. In many respects, cryptocurrencies are still viewed as an unfamiliar, marginal phenomenon restricted to the purview of specialists. This article seeks, to demystify the Bitcoin concept, to demonstrate that, far from being low-risk, Bitcoin constitutes a substantial danger in terms of criminal enterprise; and to promote the case for greater awareness among criminal justice professionals and law enforcement officers in particular.