Chainalysis: "in 2021 year through cryptocurrencies was washed $8.6 billion " – Bits Media

According to the analytical company Chainalysis, Over the past year, criminals werehed with the help of cryptocurrencies $8.6 billion illegally received funds. Growth compared to 2020 year was 25%.

The report notes, what, despite the increase in the indicator by 25% compared to previous year, The volume of laundered money still has not reached record levels. IN 2019 year, criminals used cryptocurrencies for laundering $10.9 billion. Total from 2017 years were laundered using digital assets $33.4 billion.

On the one side, amount in $8.6 billion looks quite impressive. On the other side, About $2 trillion. This is comparable to the capitalization of the entire cryptocurrency market, and even exceeds it after the recent fall in digital asset rates. At the same time, it is even easier to track the use of cryptocurrencies by criminals.

“The main difference between money laundering using fiat currencies and cryptocurrencies is that, that thanks to the transparency of blockchains we can track criminals much easier, who move funds from wallet to wallet, and their attempts to convert these cryptocurrencies into fiat money.", - says the report.

Analysts note, that it is mainly “digital criminals” – people – who launder money using cryptocurrencies, those who originally stole or otherwise obtained crypto assets illegally.

Interesting, that there has been a significant increase in the use of DeFi protocols for money laundering. If in 2020 year, the share of DeFi applications in the total volume of laundered funds was 2%, then in 2021 year she grew up to 17%. Against this background, centralized exchanges began to be used much less frequently - in 47% cases. At the same time, DeFi protocols are mainly used by hacker groups for money laundering., while fraudsters continue to launder funds using centralized exchanges.

Chainalysis analysts recently reported, that in the period from 2017 by 2021 the years 73% losses from cyber attacks were due to programs for hidden mining.