Cryptocurrencies have seen massive gains in 2021. But, cybercriminal attacks, illicit use of cryptos, and money laundering have also reached record heights in the blockchain space. Cybercriminal groups laundered 30% more crypto last year compared to the previous one, according to data on Wednesday from Chainalysis.
The Chainalysis Money Laundering Crypto Crime report illustrated that $8.6 billion worth of cryptos was laundered in 2021 alone, surging 30% from the previous year.
Money laundering is one of the hottest trends in crypto-related crimes according to Chainalaysis. The model is becoming widely adopted by cybercriminals to obscure the source of their funds. In an interview with Insider, Chainalysis said that the start of January saw crypto-related crime soar 80% in 2021.
Nonetheless, money laundering only amounts to 0.05% of all cryptos transaction volume last year, the same report showed.
In total, cybercriminals have laundered around $33 billion worth of cryptos since 2017, said Chainalysis. Most of the laundered money went through centralized exchanges. However, since 2018, “centralized exchanges didn’t receive the majority of funds being sent by illicit addresses”, according to the Insider.
