E-Evidence From August 18: Which User Data Investigators Can Request From Crypto Exchanges

On August 18, 2026 an EU regulation becomes applicable that for three years has occupied almost nobody outside specialist law firms. Regulation (EU) 2023/1543 on European Production and Preservation Orders for electronic evidence in criminal proceedings, E-Evidence for short, allows a public prosecutor to approach a service provider in another member state directly. For a share of cases, the route through mutual legal assistance between judicial authorities falls away. In German-language crypto coverage the rule has recently arrived mostly in a sharpened form: from Tuesday, investigators could reach accounts at crypto exchanges without a detour. That does not survive a reading of the regulation. Article 2 contains a sector exemption that bites precisely here, and the German implementing act contains a second restriction that concerns the tax office. This assessment rests on the text of the regulation at EUR-Lex and the German implementing act at gesetze-im-internet.de, both retrieved on August 16, 2026. The E-Evidence Regulation from August 18, 2026: what takes effect that day The regulation dates from July 12, 2023 and was adopted together with Directive (EU) 2023/1544. The regula...