Crypto money laundering activity down 29% from 2022: Chainalysis 

Illicit addresses sent $22.2 billion worth of cryptocurrency in 2023, a 29.5% decrease from 2022, according to the latest report from Chainalysis

article-image

Wirestock Creators/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

Money laundering involving crypto assets is generally down from a year ago, but illicit actors are starting to change their tactics, according to a report published Thursday by crypto analytics firm Chainalysis. 

Illicit addresses sent $22.2 billion worth of cryptocurrency in 2023, a 29.5% decrease from 2022, the report noted. While a broad decline in transaction volume across the board may have contributed to this decrease, the drop off in money laundering activity was steeper, analysts said. 

More illicit actors are sending stolen funds to blockchain bridges, the report found. There has also been a “substantial increase in funds sent from ransomware to gambling platforms,” the report added. 

Read more: Average potential crypto rug pull makes $2,600 in profit: Chainalysis

“Overall, it’s possible that crypto criminals are diversifying their money laundering activity across more nested services or deposit addresses in order to better conceal it from law enforcement and exchange compliance teams,” analysts wrote. “Spreading the activity across more addresses may also be a strategy to lessen the impact of any one deposit address being frozen for suspicious activity.”

It appears recent sanctions on cryptocurrency mixing services may be working, Chainalysis found, noting there was a decline in funds sent to mixers from illicit addresses last year, from $1.0 billion in 2022 to $504.3 million in 2023. There is however the problem of new services popping up to replace those blacklisted, analysts added. 

Read more: North Korea is still a threat to crypto: Chainalysis

“Sinbad became a preferred mixer for North Korea-affiliated hackers in 2022, soon after the sanctioning of Tornado Cash, which had previously been the go-to for these sophisticated cybercriminals,” the report noted. With Sinbad out of the picture, Bitcoin-based mixer YoMix has acted as a replacement. 

Chainalysis’s latest report comes on the heels of the US Treasury Department’s 2024 National Risks Assessments, which claimed that while the use of cryptocurrency in illicit financing has increased, fiat remains the most popular choice for those looking to conceal funds. 

The House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday also discussed how digital assets are used to fund terrorists, with Terrorism and Financial Intelligence undersecretary Brian Nelson reiterating that “traditional products and services” are still terrorists’ “preference.”


Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

zerebro.png

Research

Here we tackle the new crypto product ideas we expect agents to enable, reason about the value capture potential of different AI agent platform plays, and survey the current landscape of leading AI agent platform pureplays available to crypto investors today.

article-image

Despite the decades-long lead, there are spooky similarities between ETH and Intel stock

article-image

Some are calling for Solana to pump the brakes until validators are able to share the extra fees with stakers

article-image

Pantera junior partner Mason Nystrom details why projects need to raise capital

article-image

It’ll take time to “disentangle all these strands,” Peirce noted — ongoing litigation included

article-image

The victory lap the crypto industry has run since election night is bumping into some hurdles

article-image

The crypto custody firm’s goal was to “identify price points at which traders might consider the market to be overextended”