Crypto Crime amounts to USD1.4 billion in 2020 so far
According to CipherTrace, a cryptocurrency Anti-Money Laundering, cryptocurrency forensics, and blockchain threat intelligence solutions provider, crypto-related scams have resulted in of USD1.4 billion being lost by May 2020.
Of this USD1.4 billion, USD1.36 billion can apparently be attributed to a Ponzi scheme called Wotoken, according to an article published by Finextra, which offered its, so far, 715,000+ victims exorbitant returns via non-existent algorithmic trading strategies, resulting in the accumulation of over USD1 billion in crypto assets by the operator.
It has also been revealed by a report that there has been a 47% decrease, however, in the amount of illegitimate funds received by crypto-exchanges, with only 0.17% of funds ultimately being traced to criminal sources.
According to the report: “This suggests that many criminals are finding it harder to offload their illicit funds directly into cryptocurrency exchanges, indicating effective implementation of AML measures around the world.”
The report does acknowledge, however, that an increasing number of criminals have been becoming more adept at masking the illicit nature of their funds, and hiding the fact that they have been sourced from scams.
“CipherTrace’s examination of one prominent darknet marketplace revealed that risk exposure to exchanges tripled for secondary transactions (two-hops out) compared to primary transactions (one-hop out),” said the report.
Of the localities listed, the report names Finland as the greatest offender for fraudulent offences, with 12% of all funds received from the country by crypto-exchanges stemming from a criminal source. Russia places second, at 5.23%, with the final podium place going to the UK.
The report also notes that 74% of the bitcoin involved in exchange to exchange transactions was sent cross-border, thus underlining the importance of establishing global AML standards.
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