One of the fears and concerns that cryptocurrencies generate the most and the NFTs it is your possibility for money laundering due to its acclaimed decentralization. In a recent report by the firm Chainalysis, it is estimated that cybercriminal gangs laundered $8.600 billion worth of cryptocurrencies in 2021.
This represents an increase of 30% compared to the previous year, which indicates that cryptocurrencies are becoming much more attractive as a way to launder money. Chainalysis commented that it arrived at the figure by tracking transactions linked to cybercriminal activity across different cryptocurrency blockchains. It was done by tracking addresses linked to activities such as deep web market selling, online scams, cryptocurrency platform hacks, and ransomware attacks.
Cryptocurrencies help cybercrime
The data claims that cybercriminals have laundered more than $33.000 billion worth of cryptocurrency since 2017. Most of the total over time has moved to centralized exchanges. In most cases, cybercriminal groups send the funds to centralized cryptocurrency exchanges, where they can convert their crypto assets into real-world fiat currency, i.e. dollars, euros or whatever currency they need.
Almost 47% of all stolen cryptocurrency was laundered through traditional exchanges. The second preferred money laundering method was decentralized finance platforms, where users could easily convert funds into other cryptocurrencies through different blockchains. In total, 17% of funds stolen last year were laundered through these decentralized platforms, up from just 2% in 2020.
Ransomware gangs preferred to use underground cryptocurrency exchanges, compared to deep web market managers, who mainly used cryptocurrency mixing services. groups of hackers, who chose DeFi protocols.
The activity of cryptocurrency money laundering it has remained fairly concentrated in a few services in recent years. Chainalysis warns that this is a positive sign because it may allow security forces to take action against some of these illegal operations.
Source: the record
