Crypto crime became common in 2024 despite the fact that it was a landmark year for institutional adoption. A report from the blockchain security company Chainalysis reveals that $ 40 billion was received at illegal addresses.
$ 40 billion is an estimate that will rise through 2025 when more details about historical crimes emerge. The illegal crypto in question can be attributed to scams, malware, fraud or dark net activities.
2023’s figures ended at $ 46.1 billion, although Chainalysis expects the total amount of 2024 to exceed it when all crime is explained by an estimated a total of $ 51.3 billion.
The total amount also excludes income from non-crypto native crime such as drug trafficking or money laundering, where crypto is used as a means of payment, the report added.
The approval of Spot Bitcoin ETFs in 2024 led to a wave of institutional volume, which reduces the ratio of cryptober and the industry-covered volume, with illegal transactions that account for 0.14% of all crypto transactions compared to 0.61% in 2023.
Criminals also change their habits when it comes to sending illegal means; By 2021, about 70% of all illegal transactions involved Bitcoin (BTC), which has now turned to be dominated by stableecoins. BTC now accounts for about 20% of all illegal transactions, while stableecoins occupy the majority by 63%.
Privacy Coin Monero (XMR) is also a remarkable recording on the list due to its spread in dark net markets, Altcoins account for approx. 10% of all illegal transactions in total.
It is worth noting that in 2025 the figures may be skewed to include ether (ETH) due to February’s $ 1.5 billion hack on Bybit, which is the largest single cryptotft to date.
