Chainalysis and Crypto Crime Report: Money Laundering Trends
Chainalysis, the on-chain analysis platform, has reported that in 2023, criminals laundered $22.3 billion, a decrease of almost 30% from the previous year. The decline is partly attributed to the overall decrease in both legitimate and illicit crypto transactions. Despite this, there has been a significant decrease of 29.5% in money laundering transactions compared to a 14.9% decrease in the total volume of transactions.
- The downward trend in money laundering activities
- Overall decrease in both legitimate and illicit crypto transactions
- 29.5% decrease in money laundering transactions
- 14.9% decrease in the total volume of transactions
- Destination for funds from illicit addresses
- Centralized crypto-exchanges remain the main destination with 62%
- DeFi protocolsโ share is growing, reaching 13% in 2023
Money Laundering: Diversification and New Tactics
Crypto criminals have been diversifying their money laundering activities across multiple services to better conceal them. They also appear to be using new tactics, distributing their activity across multiple addresses belonging to intermediaries or wallets, fiat off-ramping services such as centralized crypto exchanges, and DeFi protocols.
- Diversifying money laundering activities
- Use of bridges and mixers for money laundering
- Criminals distribute their activity across multiple addresses belonging to intermediaries or wallets or fiat off-ramping services (such as centralized crypto exchanges)
- New tactics and strategies used by criminals
Growth of โApproval Phishingโ
The Chainalysis Report highlights the explosive growth of Approval Phishing in 2023, with scammers stealing $374.6 million through this crypto scam technique. Approval phishing involves tricking users into signing a malicious blockchain transaction, giving scammers approval to spend specific tokens within their wallet and emptying the victimโs address at their discretion.
- Growth of Approval Phishing
- $374.6 million stolen through this technique in 2023
- Increase in decentralized applications requiring approval signatures
- Tricking users into signing malicious blockchain transactions
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