Crypto crimes contributed to a record transaction on the blockchain worth USD 20.6 billion or the equivalent of IDR 313.3 (assuming an exchange rate of IDR 15,210 per US dollar) trillion according to a new report from blockchain research firm Chainalysis.
Head of research at Chainalysis, Kim Grauer revealed, although the total loss was the largest, other forms of illicit crypto activity tended to fall.
“There are two categories that are really standing out in terms of growth, and those are approved activity and hacking,” said Grauer as quoted from CoinDesk.
According to the Chainalysis report, the first mover was criminal activity which accounted for 0.24 percent of all blockchain transactions last year increasing from the previous year’s 0.12 percent. However, crypto crime is a tiny fraction of total volume at less than 1 percent, according to the report.
Grauer said once the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) begins cracking down on crypto platforms in 2021 rather than selecting the crypto addresses of specific bad actors, all transactions made by platforms that are said to facilitate crime are counted.
With this new categorization, Chainalysis finds that most of the activity sanctioned in 2022 will come from funds flowing to Garantex or other such services. Guaranteetex is a continuously operating Russian based crypto exchange. The exchange had inflows of USD 1.3 billion or equivalent to IDR 19.7 trillion through October, following sanctions in April, according to the report.
While OFAC tries to limit illicit activity on other crypto-based platforms, such as the darknet marketplace Hydra and the decentralized mixing service Tornado Cash, the agency’s efforts vary. Its success often depends on the type of entity subject to OFAC sanctions and whether users in those jurisdictions are aware of the sanctions imposed on the platform.
Chainalysis found a significant increase in the amount of funds hacked by North Korean organizations during 2022. Cybercriminals based in North Korea hacked USD 1.6 billion or equivalent to IDR 24.3 trillion, beating their own record from the previous year.
