Chainalysis Report: Crypto Value Sent From Illicit Addresses Dropped by Nearly $

[sirty143]

Chainalysis Report: Crypto Value Sent From Illicit Addresses Dropped by Nearly $10 Billion in 2023

According to Chainalysis’ report on money laundering trends, the value of crypto transferred by illicit addresses in 2023 fell by nearly $10 billion from $31.5 billion to the latest $22 billion. See more for yourself here.

Your opinion is greatly appreciated.

[Charles-Tim]

It would have been good if we can see a comparison between the amount of crypto used for illicit activities versus the amount of fiat used for the same purpose. I guess the amount for cryptocurrencies would be smaller if compared to the amount of USD used in illicit activities and not to talk of other fiat or countries.

It is also worth to know that bitcoin used in illicit activities has been decreasing and taken over by USDT and other stable coins that are backed by fiat.

The reasons for the decrease could be because some bad actors which used crypto for illicit activities are getting known and revealed. Cryptocurrencies is not as anonymous as people thought it is, therefore having fiat as their preferences. Or because the bull run is not yet significant enough.

[Captain Corporate]

You are right that it is not even remotely similar without a doubt. Fiat has been used for "illicit" stuff for decades, even centuries and we should not be comparing bitcoin or crypto with the same logic. Obviously, crypto will be used as well but we need to realize that its not going to be the same. It is clear that we are not seeing anything that would be considered alright by authorities and in the end crypto will be checked as well, and yet it will never be close to fiat. This drop shows that crypto is getting more secure while most of the other people who use fiat are still going strong.

[Aanuoluwatofunmi]

You are right that it is not even remotely similar without a doubt. Fiat has been used for "illicit" stuff for decades, even centuries and we should not be comparing bitcoin or crypto with the same logic. Obviously, crypto will be used as well but we need to realize that its not going to be the same. It is clear that we are not seeing anything that would be considered alright by authorities and in the end crypto will be checked as well, and yet it will never be close to fiat. This drop shows that crypto is getting more secure while most of the other people who use fiat are still going strong.

I don't know why many of these organizations and government always concentrate more on crypto being used for financial abuse while the abuse on fiat currencies had for a long time been undealt with, maybe this is just to say that they are partly being jealous the fact that they cannot control or regulate the decentralized digital currencies or cryptocurrency to say, even the governments cannot give account on how they have utilized the seized funds from scam related occurrences both in fiat and cryptocurrency.

[Lucius]

It would have been good if we can see a comparison between the amount of crypto used for illicit activities versus the amount of fiat used for the same purpose. I guess the amount for cryptocurrencies would be smaller if compared to the amount of USD used in illicit activities and not to talk of other fiat or countries.

A few years ago (I can't remember exactly), a good friend of ours from another forum (Leo) wrote somewhere that even less than 1% of all illegal transactions were in cryptocurrencies, and it seems to me that this percentage is still very small (definitely less than 5%). When we think about it, it can't be different considering that the number of people who are in some way involved in cryptocurrencies is less than 5% (globally), and most of them use cryptocurrencies exclusively as an investment, not as a currency.

The reasons for the decrease could be because some bad actors which used crypto for illicit activities are getting known and revealed. Cryptocurrencies is not as anonymous as people thought it is, therefore having fiat as their preferences. Or because the bull run is not yet significant enough.

Except perhaps the so-called "private coins", everything else is very easy to follow, and those who thought differently when they did bad things with their cryptocurrencies were often unpleasantly surprised.

[Crwth]

Having that significant drop makes it seem that some people probably chose a different coin/token in 2023 with all that illicit stuff going on. Maybe they have found a better one or something. That doesn't excuse the fact that there are other ways that mind be worse or something. Maybe we could see this as a new view for the cryptocurrency space.

[Z-tight]

I don't know if the data is correct, but people launder money more through fiat and other tools rather than through BTC. The BTC blockchain is transparent and public and all tx's can be viewed on the blockchain, and even if you use mixers or CoinJoin services, it can be confiscated if you move it to a centralized exchange after mixing. My point is that it is difficult to launder money through BTC, unlike the way the media paints it, as if most of the illicit tx's happen through crypto.

It is also worth to know that bitcoin used in illicit activities has been decreasing and taken over by USDT and other stable coins that are backed by fiat.

Usdt and other stable coins are centralized and can be frozen by the issuers in any wallet that it is stored in, so i don't think any scammer would use these coins for illicit tx's.

[Charles-Tim]

Usdt and other stable coins are centralized and can be frozen by the issuers in any wallet that it is stored in, so i don't think any scammer would use these coins for illicit tx's.

I am lazy to do more research about this but in accordance to what I have been reading in late 2023, according to a research which was not Chainanalyis research, Stablecoins, especially USDT was used most in illicit activities. Not more than 2 weeks after that research report came out, Chainanalysis report also came out which was not in full like it is now but like in summary before this report came out which also stated the same thing last year forth quarter. Also it is stated in the full report.


https://www.chainalysis.com/blog/2024-crypto-crime-report-introduction/

My post is in accordance to what I saw from Chainanalysis research.