Crypto criminal transactions crossed $40b in 2024: Chainalysis

Illicit crypto transactions in 2024 are likely to go beyond the 2023 file, while criminals swivel stablecoins for the laundering of stolen funds.

Blockchain Insight Provider Chainalysis reported 40 billion dollars in criminal transactions related to crypto last year, the estimated total should exceed $ 51.3 billion as additional data is collected.

The report has examined illegal activities such as cryptographic scams, digital asset fraud and ransomware attacks. To current estimates, 2024 represents only $ 6.1 billion in the registration volume of criminal transactions analyzed in 2023.

However, the bad actors have changed tactics and institutional adoption reduced the Illicit Transactions ratio compared to legitimate activity. The analysis chain noted that stablecoins have become the preferred method to move the stolen crypto.

In 2021, Bitcoin (BTC) represented 70% of criminal transactions. However, the stablecoins now dominate, representing 63% of the volume of illicit transactions, while only 20% of illegal funds are now bleached via the Bitcoin network.

Dark Web sellers and users also turned to Coin Monero confidentiality (Xmr), while 10% of illegal transactions involve altcoins.

Meanwhile, the volume of legitimate cryptography has increased, motivated by the institutional adoption of Wall Street. The launch of funds negotiated on Spot based on Bitcoin and Ethereum (Ethn) has considerably increased legal trading activity.

This adoption wave reduced illicit transactions to only 0.14% of the total cryptography volume in 2024, against 0.61% the previous year.