- The growth of stablecoins in illegal activities is alarming, the analyst of Chainalysis threw light on the report that stablecoin issuers most actively hit their misuse.
- The report also throws light on the remarkable slump in darknet market activity and fraud shop volumes.
- The report of Chainalysis also confirms an alerting increase in stolen funds, with a 21% year-over-year growth to $2.2 billion.
On January 15, a 2025 crypto crime report was released by a blockchain analytics firm, Chainalysis. The report says that cybercriminals are gradually shifting their focus to stablecoins. Before this, Bitcoin was the target and it dominated the crypto outlook for illicit activities.
In the current scenario, 63% of all the fraudulent activities, include stablecoin assets. At the same time, some of the areas of crime such as ransomware and darknet market (DNM) sales are still bitcoin-dominated.
The alarming growth
The growth of stablecoins in illegal activities is alarming, the analyst of Chainalysis threw light on the report that stablecoin issuers most actively hit their misuse. Tether (USDT) has a history of freezing addresses linked with scams, terrorist financing, and permit eluding, making stablecoins a less captivating option for some attackers.
In 2024, around $40.9 billion was accumulated by illegal addresses, as reported by Chainalysis. Although, the given data probably underrates the actual scale of crypto crime, having historical trends say the real figure may be nearer to $51 billion.
This shows about 0.14% of the total on-chain transaction volume. Ransomware is still a continuing threat, making substantial revenue for criminals and, at the same time, an amalgamation of law enforcement actions and a slump in victim enthusiasm to pay ransoms has somewhere solidified their impact, as per the report.
The report also throws light on the remarkable slump in darknet market activity and fraud shop volumes. A crucial factor contributing to this slump was the successful law enforcement exposition of the Universal Anonymous Payment System (UAPS), a crypto payment processor used by various fraud shops.
Another alarming trend
The report of Chainalysis also confirms an alerting increase in stolen funds, with a 21% year-over-year growth to $2.2 billion. At the same time, decentralized finance (DeFi) services have been common targets, centralized exchanges experienced an increase in hacks at the time of the Q2 and Q3 of the last year.
Private key settlements were the most common method of hacks, estimated for about 44% of all stolen crypto. The hacking groups from North Korea show 61% of the overall stolen funds, draining a whopping $1.34 billion from crypto platforms.
These hacks mostly comprise sophisticated tactics, techniques, and procedures employed by IT workers in North Korea who have invaded crypto as well as Web3 firms, including their internal networks.
Chainalysis also mentioned another alarming trend, which is the growing use of artificial intelligence in illicit activities. Mostly individualized sextortion hacks backed by AI-powered tools are now very common, according to the report.
- The growth of stablecoins in illegal activities is alarming, the analyst of Chainalysis threw light on the report that stablecoin issuers most actively hit their misuse.
- The report also throws light on the remarkable slump in darknet market activity and fraud shop volumes.
- The report of Chainalysis also confirms an alerting increase in stolen funds, with a 21% year-over-year growth to $2.2 billion.
On January 15, a 2025 crypto crime report was released by a blockchain analytics firm, Chainalysis. The report says that cybercriminals are gradually shifting their focus to stablecoins. Before this, Bitcoin was the target and it dominated the crypto outlook for illicit activities.
In the current scenario, 63% of all the fraudulent activities, include stablecoin assets. At the same time, some of the areas of crime such as ransomware and darknet market (DNM) sales are still bitcoin-dominated.
The alarming growth
The growth of stablecoins in illegal activities is alarming, the analyst of Chainalysis threw light on the report that stablecoin issuers most actively hit their misuse. Tether (USDT) has a history of freezing addresses linked with scams, terrorist financing, and permit eluding, making stablecoins a less captivating option for some attackers.
In 2024, around $40.9 billion was accumulated by illegal addresses, as reported by Chainalysis. Although, the given data probably underrates the actual scale of crypto crime, having historical trends say the real figure may be nearer to $51 billion.
This shows about 0.14% of the total on-chain transaction volume. Ransomware is still a continuing threat, making substantial revenue for criminals and, at the same time, an amalgamation of law enforcement actions and a slump in victim enthusiasm to pay ransoms has somewhere solidified their impact, as per the report.
The report also throws light on the remarkable slump in darknet market activity and fraud shop volumes. A crucial factor contributing to this slump was the successful law enforcement exposition of the Universal Anonymous Payment System (UAPS), a crypto payment processor used by various fraud shops.
Another alarming trend
The report of Chainalysis also confirms an alerting increase in stolen funds, with a 21% year-over-year growth to $2.2 billion. At the same time, decentralized finance (DeFi) services have been common targets, centralized exchanges experienced an increase in hacks at the time of the Q2 and Q3 of the last year.
Private key settlements were the most common method of hacks, estimated for about 44% of all stolen crypto. The hacking groups from North Korea show 61% of the overall stolen funds, draining a whopping $1.34 billion from crypto platforms.
These hacks mostly comprise sophisticated tactics, techniques, and procedures employed by IT workers in North Korea who have invaded crypto as well as Web3 firms, including their internal networks.
Chainalysis also mentioned another alarming trend, which is the growing use of artificial intelligence in illicit activities. Mostly individualized sextortion hacks backed by AI-powered tools are now very common, according to the report.
