Blockchain analysis company Chainalysis has released the next part of its 2021 Crypto Crime Series. The key finding is that in 2020, a very limited group of services who control just 270 cryptocurrency addresses laundered 55% of illicit funds that they traced in 2020, worth $1.3 billion. This suggests law enforcement could significantly hamper cybercriminals’ ability to convert cryptocurrency into cash by identifying and prosecuting the owners of these deposit addresses.
A few other notable highlights:
- A list of the top ten countries receiving the highest volume of cryptocurrency from illicit addresses, based on the breakdowns of the locations of the users for the services receiving those funds
- Addresses associated with ransomware have the highest share of sending activity concentrated to the top five services, at 78% in 2020.
- Money laundering activity is even more concentrated at the deposit address level – just 1,867 deposit addresses received 75% of all cryptocurrency value sent from illicit addresses in 2020. A smaller group of 270 deposit addresses received 55%. [chart in blog]
Click here to view the full report.
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