Friday, February 23, 2024 – The money laundered through cryptocurrency exchanges declined by 29 per cent in 2023, according to a blockchain research platform, Chainalysis.
The report, published on Thursday, February 22 revealed that
those illicit funds dropped by approximately $9.3bn, declining from $31.5bn in
2022 to $22.2bn in 2023.
Chainalysis noted that the drop could be attributed to an
overall decrease in crypto transaction volume, both legitimate and illicit.
The report added that centralised exchanges had been the
primary destination for funds sent from illicit addresses, at a rate that has
remained relatively stable over the last five years.
“Over time, the role of
illicit services has shrunk, while the share of illicit funds going to DeFi
protocols has grown.
“We attribute this primarily
to the overall growth of DeFi generally during the period, but must also note
that DeFi’s inherent transparency generally makes it a poor choice for
obfuscating the movement of funds,” it said.
The report said that there was a slight decrease in the
share of illicit funds directed to illicit service types between 2022 and 2023
accompanied by an increase in funds moving towards gambling services and bridge
protocols.
“If we zoom in to look at how
specific types of crypto criminals laundered money, we can see that there was a
significant change in some areas. Most notably, we saw a huge increase in the
volume of funds sent to cross-chain bridges from addresses associated with
stolen funds.
“We also observed a
substantial increase in funds sent from ransomware to gambling platforms, and
in funds sent to bridges from ransomware wallets,” it added.
Chainalysis said 109 exchange deposit addresses received
over $10m worth of illicit cryptocurrency each, and collectively, they received
$3.4bn in illicit cryptocurrency in 2023.
“While that still represents
significant concentration, in 2022, only 40 addresses received over $10m in
illicit crypto, for a collective total of just under $2.0bn.
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