The crypto industry has grown enormously in the past few years. This is of course positive for the industry, but there are also a number of negative aspects involved. For example, it strongly seems that crypto crime has also grown rapidly. According to blockchainanalysis platform Elliptic, criminals will already have embezzled more than $10 billion by 2025.
Crypto crime
The promise of ‘quick profits’ not only attracts interested investors and traders, criminals also hope to profit from the ever-growing market. Blockchain technology has even brought with it some new ways for these rogues to operate.
Based on industry growth and information from previous years, crypto criminals will launder at least $10.5 billion by 2025, which is predicted in the report “Following the Money in a Cross-chain World” by Elliptic.
The company has at least $4.1 billion in it cryptocurrencies identified that most likely originates from criminal circles and has been laundered in some way in the crypto market. It is therefore expected that this amount will only increase in the next few years.
“The value of illicit crypto laundered through cross-chain crime […] will rise nearly 60% from $4.1 billion in mid-2022 to $6.5 billion in 2023. That figure will more than double to $10.5 billion by 2025, with an upper estimate of nearly $15 billion.”
Legitimate services used for illegal purposes
Furthermore, the study has also drawn attention to the enormous speed at which crime appears to be rising. In 2020, ‘only’ $500 million was laundered on DEXs, bridges and other services. By 2022, this had already risen to more than $4 billion. Arda Akartuna, a leading researcher at Elliptic, had this to say about the observation:=
“These services, which mostly facilitate legitimate activities, have nevertheless attracted the attention of bad actors looking for new ways to launder their criminal proceeds.”