Chainalysis, a blockchain data company, claimed that criminal whales account for 3.7% of all cryptocurrency whales. These bad actors collectively control more than $25 billion in digital assets.
Nearly 4% of Crypto Whales are Criminals
Many experts agree that cryptocurrencies are a financial revolution. They have many advantages. But bitcoin and other altcoins also have their critics. These critics claim that bitcoin and the altcoins are used by drug traffickers, terrorists, money-launderers, and others for illicit activities.
According to the above accusation, Chainalysis a New York-based cryptocurrency analysis company – identified 468 criminal cryptocurrency whales (3.7%) who together possess more than $25B worth of digital assets. According to the firm, every entity has more than $1 million worth of crypto.
It is important to note that the majority of whales got either a small or large amount from illegal addresses. 1,374 received between 10% and 25% from illegal wallets, while 1,361 got between 90% and 100%.
Criminal whales received illicit funds from a variety of sources. Scams (32.4%) ranked second, with the Darknet (37.7%) ranking first. Ransomware, fraud shop and stolen funds rounded out the top five.
Chainalysis also analyzed the locations of those criminals. It assigned UTC zone numbers to 768 whales whose wallets had enough activity to allow for a strong estimate. The most criminals are found in the areas 2, 3 and 4. This area also includes Russia’s largest cities, Moscow and Saint Petersburg. These time zones also include Iran, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and Saudi Arabia.
In 2021, Crypto was stolen by criminals worth billions of dollars
, a blockchain analytics company revealed that the total cryptocurrency amount laundered in 2021 was $8.6 Billion – 30% more than 2020.
Bad actors have transferred almost 17% of these assets to Decentralized Financing applications, an increase from 2% the previous year.
Chainalysis explained that these numbers account only for funds derived from “cryptocurrency-native crime,” including Darknet market sales or ransomware attacks
