Over 1,4 billion dollars in cryptocurrency associated with illicit activities moved to exchanges around the world from January to June, according to blockchain analytics firm PeckShield.
The top 10 cryptocurrency exchanges involved in these "high risk" activities include the popular platforms Huobi, Binance, OKEx, ZB, Gate.io, BitMEX, Bithumb and Coinbase, the Chinese company said in a report released last week.
The dark side of cryptocurrencies
"The data highlights the current challenge of compliance with cryptocurrency exchanges," according to the report. PeckShield said that his analysis is based on over 100 million blockchain addresses that he has labeled and monitored over the course of a year, including the top 5 crypto assets including bitcoin, ether and tether.
Among these addresses, the company has identified many associated with Ponzi schemes, dark web transactions and hacks, as well as illegal online gambling operations that use cryptocurrencies as funding options.
The analysis suggests that various cryptocurrencies - around 147.000 bitcoins which correspond to $ 1,4 billion in value at press time - ended up in exchange portfolios around the world.
Following another track, as of June 30, nearly $ 1,6 billion of crypto assets from these high-risk locations entered cryptocurrency mixing services, and could end up on the stock exchange at any time. Coin mixers obfuscate the source of transactions on the chain.
The application of the anti-money laundering rules is only a matter of time
In a follow-up report published later, the company revealed a chart in which the collected data shows how Huobi, Binance and OKEx received most of the contaminated crypto transactions.
"The problem of the influx of contaminated crypto assets has not been adequately addressed through rigorous regulatory enforcement," the company wrote in the report. "Money laundering is considered an important problem and there is no real follow-up ... but it is only a matter of time" until the new anti-money-loundering (AML) rules are integrated.
The results come at a time when the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global supervisor against money laundering, has pushed for a more stringent application of the so-called Travel Rule for crypto companies.
The issue of crypto transactions contaminated with illegal activities has recently hit counter counters in China, causing many users' bank accounts to be frozen by local law enforcement agencies.
PeckShield added that, out of 100 million blockchain addresses he followed, over 53 million belong to exchanges. Coinbase ranks first with 18 million bitcoin addresses, followed by Binance with 5,42 million.
Coinbase also holds the largest cryptocurrency in the monitored addresses, with assets of $ 11 billion. Huobi, Binance, Bitifnex, OKEx followed $ 5,8 billion, $ 3,4 billion, $ 3 billion and $ 2,5 billion respectively in cryptocurrency.
And it is precisely for this reason that if you wish invest in cryptocurrencies, we recommend that you always do it with regulated and safe software, like the ones we suggest in our in-depth articles!
