View source for Crypto Money Laundering Rises 30 In 2021 -Chainalysis

<br>By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss<br> <br>NEW YORK, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Cybercriminals laundered $8.6 billion in cryptocurrencies last year,  [https://mydarkmarket.com darknet market] markets onion up 30% from 2020, according to a report from blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis released on Wednesday.<br> <br>Overall, cybercriminals have laundered more than $33 billion worth of crypto since 2017, Chainalysis estimated, with most of the total over time moving to centralized exchanges.<br> <br>The firm said the sharp rise in money laundering activity in 2021 was not surprising, given the significant growth of both legitimate and illegal crypto activity last year.<br> <br>Money laundering refers to that process of disguising the origin of illegally obtained money by transferring it to legitimate businesses.<br> <br>About 17% of the $8.6 billion laundered went to decentralized finance applications, Chainalysis said, referring to the sector which facilitates crypto-denominated financial transactions outside of traditional banks.<br> <br>That was up from 2% in 2020.<br> <br>Mining pools, high-risk exchanges,  [https://mydarkmarket.com darknet market] markets onion address and mixers also saw substantial increases in value received from illicit addresses, the report said.<br><br>Mixers typically combine potentially identifiable or tainted cryptocurrency funds with others, so as to conceal the trail to the fund's original source.<br> <br>Wallet addresses associated with theft sent just under half of their stolen funds, or more than $750 million worth of crypto in total,  [https://mydarkmarket.com dark web market links] to decentralized finance platforms, according to the Chainalysis report.<br> <br>Chainalysis also clarified that the $8.6 billion laundered last year represents funds derived from crypto-native crime such as [https://mydarkmarket.com darknet market list] [https://mydarkmarket.com darknet market] sales or ransomware attacks in which profits are in crypto instead of fiat currencies.<br> <br>"It's more difficult to measure how much fiat currency derived from off-line crime - traditional drug trafficking, for example - is converted into cryptocurrency to be laundered," Chainalysis said in the report.<br> <br>"However, we know anecdotally this is happening." (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Himani Sarkar)<br>