Crypto Crime Fell Sharply to Only 0.3% of All Cryptocurrency Activity in 2020
A study by blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis finds that cryptocurrency-related crime has fallen significantly. The criminal share of all crypto activity fell to just 0.34% in 2020. This contradicts recent statements by U.S. Treasury Secretary nominee Janet Yellen and ECB President Christine Lagarde that cryptocurrencies are mostly used for illicit financing. Crypto Crime Plummeted in 2020 Chainalysis shared some findings from its 2021 Crypto Crime Report this week. While acknowledging that “cryptocurrency remains appealing for criminals as well due primarily to its pseudonymous....
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The proceeds of crypto crime fell by more than $5 billion in 2020, due to increasing regulatory compliance by crypto exchanges and declining scams. Revenue from crypto-related crime dropped by more than half in 2020 according to Chainalysis’ annual report on the subject.Cybercriminals netted around $5 billion less than the $10 billion plus they got away with in 2019, representing a 53% fall. Transactions involving illicit funds have decreased even more rapidly than the total volume of those funds, falling from 2.1% of all transactions analyzed in 2019 down to just 0.34% last year. Among....
Partly offsetting the positive trend is an explosion in ransomware attacks, which rose 311% from 2019.
Crypto crime rates are dropping despite a massive increase in attacks targeting the DeFi sector, reports security firm CipherTrace. Crimes targeting the virtual currency sector decreased by more than half in 2020 according to blockchain security firm CipherTrace.The firm’s 2020 cryptocurrency crime and anti-money laundering report revealed that losses from cryptocurrency theft, hacks, and fraud fell 57% in 2020 to $1.9 billion, due mainly to improved security systems. The same figure in 2019 hit a record $4.5 billion.CipherTrace said that “massive exit scams” such as the PlusToken Ponzi....
A rapidly growing crypto market means that hacks and scams are accounting for less overall activity, and their percentage of total usage continues to decline. Illicit cryptocurrency activity in 2021 and the first quarter of 2022 has declined as a percentage of overall crypto activity, according to blockchain forensics firm CipherTrace.The cryptocurrency industry has long held a reputation in some jurisdictions as a haven for illegal activity. However, CipherTrace estimates that illicit activity was between 0.62% and 0.65% of overall cryptocurrency activity in 2020. The firm reported that....
Dutch authorities seized over 25 million euros ($28.6) worth in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies due to alleged criminal activity. A Chainalysis 2021 report revealed that in 2019 the volume of illicit crypto activity represented a small 2.1% of all transactions, and in 2020 that volume fell 0.34%, but their expectation for 2021 was for “cybercriminal use of DeFi for money laundering to increase”. just as the cryptocurrency industry is always evolving, so too are the bad actors who commit cryptocurrency-related crime. The Fiscal Information and Investigation....