According to a report by Elliptic, over the last 2 years cybercriminals have laundered more than 4 billion USD. They have mainly used anonymous exchanges, DEX exchanges and network bridges.
The report also mentions that some DEX exchanges assisted with laundering of money that was obtained illegally. It is estimated that 1.2 billion USD were laundered. On decentralised exchanges, as well as in the DEFi space, criminals use various exploits. DEX exchanges are often hacked. Network bridges amount to 750 million USD of the illegal turnover of finance.
Elliptic clarified, the company does not claim that network bridges and DEX exchanges are only used by criminals. In fact, most of their users are law-abiding citizens. However, Elliptic specialists have tracked noticeable amounts of money that were acquired via fraud and hacking. Criminals move this money through network bridges and DEX exchanges to obscure the source of the funds.
During the aforementioned period, more than a billion USD has been laundered through crypto exchanges that do not implement the KYC procedure. These exchanges allow users to exchange crypto either inside a single blockchain, or between multiple, without creating an account.
In August Elliptic stated that since July of last year until July of this year, cybercriminals had stolen 100 million USD worth of NFT tokens.
The “Digital Control” digital research center is taking part in the fight against fraud and it is providing assistance in this field to government entities and judicial persons. Lack of knowledge regarding the mechanisms of operation of digital assets and technology should not facilitate fraud.
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