Chainalysis Study Shows Criminal Whales Hold $25B in Digital Assets – According to Chainalysis’ study, criminal entities own more than $25 billion in cryptocurrency. According to the research conducted by the blockchain intelligence firm, criminals’ crypto holdings increased by 266 % since the previous year.
According to a research issued by the blockchain monitoring firm Chainalysis, criminals today have $25 billion in digital assets. Despite substantial law enforcement seizures last year, officials may conceivably seize billions of dollars in cryptocurrency held by criminal groups on the blockchain.
From Chainalysis research, there was a “substantial surge in criminal balances” in 2021. According to Chainalysis, the metric was $3 billion in 2020, whereas criminal entities owned $11 billion in 2021. Moreover, out of stolen funds, fraud shops, ransomware, and darknet funds, the balance of stolen funds constitute the lion’s share of crypto held by criminals.
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“At $9.8 billion, stolen funds account for 93 percent of all criminal balances as of the end of 2021. “Darknet market funds come in second with $448 million, followed by scams with $192 million, fraud shops with $66 million, and ransomware with $30 million,” according to Chainalysis. “Criminal balances fluctuated throughout the year, from a low of $6.6 billion in July to a peak of $14.8 billion in October,” according to the report.
Furthermore, the Chainalysis survey revealed that darknet market vendors and administrators dominated the roost when it came to holding crypto for the longest time without liquidating. According to the study, entities that retain stolen crypto assets keep the funds for the shortest amount of time.
Although there are “very huge wallets that hold longer than is common for others in the stolen funds category.” The firm was also able to determine that criminal whales had “greater variance” after analyzing their balances.
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Chainalysis Study Shows Criminal Whales Hold $25B in Digital Assets – A criminal crypto whale, according to Chainalysis analysts, is any private wallet containing $1 million in cryptocurrency with at least 10% of the cash coming from unlawful addresses.
Thousands of alleged criminal crypto whales have been uncovered by Chainalysis, and it appears that the majority of them fall into one of two categories: “whales obtained either a relatively small or exceptionally high share of their total balance via illegitimate addresses.”
According to the company’s report, “overall, Chainalysis has identified 4,068 illegal whales controlling almost $25 billion in cryptocurrencies.” “Criminal whales account for 3.7 percent of all cryptocurrency whales, or private wallets with more than $1 million in cryptocurrency,” according to the report.
