lCryptocrimes amounted to $24 billion in 2023, but also fell significantly compared to the all-time high of $39 trillion in 2022, according to Chainalysis’ annual report..
Of this figure, a large portion, $14.9 trillion, represents 61.5% of the volume of illicit transactions related to sanctioned entities.
The fact that Cryptocrime represented only 0.34% of the total volume of blockchain transactions last year, it is an indication of the growing maturity of this market.
“Bitcoin just crossed the $46,000 barrier following the SEC’s recent historic decision to approve Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). “This indicates that winter is thawing over the Cryptocurrency market.”.
“Funnyhall significant reduction in cryptocrime activities in 2022, it seems that this market will reach a growth phase,” said Eric Jardine, Head of Cybercrime Research at Chainalysis.
“Thanks to the inherent transparency of blockchain, analytics tools can provide cryptocurrency regulators, law enforcement agencies, and crypto companies with the ability to detect and react to potential malicious activity on their blockchain. “This will help speed up the maturity of this market segment and give confidence to consumers.”
The notable decline The volume of cryptocrimes is largely attributed to the sharp drop in cryptocurrency scams and stolen crypto funds, whose illicit proceeds fell by 29.2% and 54.3%, respectively.
Interestingly, the decline in stolen crypto funds was largely due to the sharp drop in DeFi decentralized finance hacking. DeFi is one of the most attractive and fastest-growing areas in the cryptocurrency ecosystem due, in large part, to its transparency.
Long-term, This decline could represent the reversal of a worrying trend and could also be a sign that DeFi protocols are improving their security practices. This is good news for the Cryptocurrency community in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), one of the only countries in the region where the largest proportion of the cryptocurrency market is carried out through decentralized exchanges (48%), instead of using centralized exchanges (46%).
On the other hand, the markets of ransomware and the black market on the internet, two modalities for cryptocrime, saw their income increase in 2023, in contrast to general trends: “Ransomware revenue growth is disappointing after the sharp declines we saw last year as a result of organizations’ strong cybersecurity performance against ransomware attacks.”Jardine said.
Others of the The main conclusions are that Bitcoin is no longer the preferred cryptocurrency for cybercriminals.
While illicit activities with cryptocurrencies such as: sales on the black market on the Internet and extortion through ransomwarepredominate in Bitcoin, others such as: scams and transactions associated with sanctioned entities, have been displaced to so-called stablecoins or stable cryptocurrencies.
Overall, of all crypto crimes carried out in the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin accounted for only 25% below stablecoinswhich encompass the majority of this illicit activity as a consequence of their own growth.
