In 2021, record-breaking $ 14 billion flowed into criminal crypto wallets

In 2021 criminals used a record of cryptocurrencies for illegal purposes, but the total growth of the markets for digital assets exceeded the increase in fraud.

The amount of crypto, which was sent to the addresses of well-known criminal associations, rose to a record of $ 14 billion last year and has more than doubled compared to 2020, according to the CHAINALYSI's data company.

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, ransomware and theft last year rose in US dollars by $ 79 percent, but the overall market grew by 550 percent, with cryptocurrencies worth $ 15.8 trillion in 2021. This means that the relative share of illegal activities has dropped to a record low.

"The annual trends suggest that.

"Since the growth of the legitimate use of cryptocurrencies far exceeds the growth of criminal use, the proportion of illegal activities in the transaction volume of cryptocurrencies at 0.15 percent has never been so low," added Grauer. In his previous study, Chainalysis estimated that 0.34 percent of cryptocurrency transactions were made for illegitimate reasons.

Despite the trend, the cryptocurrency markets remain very risky for investors. Investors cost fraud with cryptocurrencies a total of $ 7.8 billion, and in 2021 cryptocurrencies worth around 3.2 billion US dollars were stolen, which corresponds to an increase of 516 percent compared to the previous year

In January, illegal addresses contained cryptocurrencies worth more than $ 10 billion, calculated chainalysis.

law enforcement authorities and supervisory authorities have become better in combating crime with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, but they collect new markets such as decentralized finances or defi that offer criminal opportunities to wash money and steal money.

More than $ 100 billion in funds are bound in defi markets on which algorithms process all transactions and there are no human interaction between the parties. The five -time growth of this area last year has created a rich hunting area for thefts and frauds such as "Rugpulls", in which fraudsters get investors investing money in a new token before they disappear.

These frauds cost investors $ 2.8 billion last year. Thefts have also increased, with around $ 2.2 billion being stolen from defect events, which corresponds to an increase of 1,330 percent compared to 2020. One example was the $ 600-million slump in the polygon network, which the hacker, the MR White was called, later returned.

elliptic, another specialized company for cryptocurrency data, calculated in November that investors lost $ 12 billion in funds last year.

"Since Defi has grown further, the problem with stolen funds has also developed.

At the end of October, the bank for international payment compensation made the first step to provide the defi markets under supervisory supervision by outlining plans to make the operators of such trading places to comply with the regulations to combat money laundering.