{"id":80923,"date":"2023-06-28T17:59:39","date_gmt":"2023-06-28T14:59:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=80923"},"modified":"2025-09-11T19:52:52","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T16:52:52","slug":"report-bitcoin-accounted-for-just-19-of-illegal-crypto-activity-in-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/report-bitcoin-accounted-for-just-19-of-illegal-crypto-activity-in-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Bitcoin accounted for just 19% of illegal crypto activity in 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Bitcoin\u2019s share of the illicit crypto economy fell from 97% in 2016 to 19% in 2022, according to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.trmlabs.com\/illicit-crypto-ecosystem-report-2023\">study<\/a> by TRM Labs.<\/p>\n<p>Analysts say that last year\u2019s bear market did not reduce the dollar value of cryptocurrency-related criminal activity:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>No less than $7.8 billion was invested in Ponzi schemes and financial pyramids;<\/li>\n<li>$1.5 billion comprised the turnover of darknet marketplaces specializing in drug trafficking;<\/li>\n<li>losses from hacks and exploits reached $3.7 billion (the largest annual total on record).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>One possible reason for such stability is a sharp shift away from Bitcoin&#8217;s dominance toward a new multi-network reality that has spawned additional threats, the researchers noted.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>In 2022 attacks on <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/what-are-cross-chain-bridges\">cross-chain bridges<\/a> alone generated $2 billion for attackers, according to the experts.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Criminals are increasingly relying on moving across networks or moving funds across different blockchains as part of their money-laundering strategies to obscure the source and destination of illicit proceeds, the analysts said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>In 2016, two-thirds of losses from hacks were attributable to the first cryptocurrency; six years on, the Ethereum ecosystem (68%) and Binance Smart Chain (19%) dominate the figures.<\/p>\n<p>At the start of the period, Bitcoin was the only cryptocurrency used to fund terrorism. By 2022, it was almost completely displaced by assets on <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/what-are-cross-chain-bridges\">Tron<\/a> (92%). The stablecoin <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/what-is-tether-usdt\">USDT from Tether<\/a> is predominantly used.<\/p>\n<p>According to the TRM Labs study, of the $1.5 billion spent on illicit online drug-trading platforms last year, 80% went to Russian-language sites. Most of them supported only Bitcoin, with no option to opt for privacy coins. Western darknet marketplaces largely offered payments in <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/what-is-monero-xmr\">Monero (XMR)<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Analysts recorded in 2022 cases of using the first cryptocurrency in corruption (cases involving <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/sam-bankman-fried-accused-of-bribing-a-chinese-official\">FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/two-chinese-intelligence-officers-charged-in-the-united-states-with-bribing-a-government-official-with-bitcoin\">Chinese intelligence officers<\/a>) and for paying for contract killings (in the United States and Italy).<\/p>\n<p>In June, the Nikulinsky District Court of Moscow seized <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/bitcoin-bribe-involving-moscow-investigator-seized-and-turned-over-to-state-budget\">1,032.1 BTC<\/a> from the former head of the investigative department for the Tverskoy district, Marat Tambiev, who was accused of taking bribes from members of the hacker group Infraud Organization.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bitcoin\u2019s share of illicit crypto activity fell from 97% in 2016 to 19% in 2022, according to TRM Labs study.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":80924,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1154,167],"class_list":["post-80923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-crimes","tag-research"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"20","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80923"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80925,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80923\/revisions\/80925"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}