According to a study released by the blockchain analysis company Elliptic, at least 13% of the income in 2020 will be transferred through funds, which is much higher than the 2% in 2019.
Dr. Tom Robinson, co-founder and chief scientist of Elliptic, pointed out in a report titled “Types of Financial Crimes in Crypto Assets” that so far in 2020, the value of Bitcoin laundered through privacy wallets exceeds $160 million. These bitcoins come from dark web markets, thefts and other types of scams.
Robinson highlighted one of the most famous incidents related to it: the Twitter hack in July. Hackers controlled more than 130 high-profile accounts on social media platforms and used fraudulent activities to collect bitcoins and launder money through Wasabi wallet.
Another example mentioned in the report is the $280 million cryptocurrency stolen from Kucoin on the Asian exchange in September. Analysis shows that the Wasabi wallet was once again used to mix some stolen funds.
The report stated that privacy wallets are now a new money laundering tool for criminals.
Dr. Robinson said that in the past few years, criminals have switched from using mixers to using privacy wallets. The mixer is a service that allows users to deposit bitcoins and then withdraw different bitcoins from pol, breaking the trail of the blockchain.
In some cases, suppliers of mixers, such as Helix, were fined millions of dollars for violating anti-money laundering regulations. Dr. Robinson gave his views on privacy wallets:
Privacy wallet helps users achieve privacy. The use of a mixer or privacy wallet is completely legal, and financial privacy is the foundation of any open society.
However, blockchain data shows that criminals have quickly used this new tool, which is a growing challenge for regulators, law enforcement and compliance professionals seeking to combat crypto-asset financial crimes.
On December 3, 2020, a Chainanalysis study showed that so far this year, the revenue of the darknet market has exceeded the record of $800 million in 2019. The most used cryptocurrencies in transactions are Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin and USDT.
Author Amy Liu
