TRM Confirms TRON’s Dominance in Illicit Crypto Transactions

In 2023, the TRON blockchain accounted for 45% of all illicit cryptocurrency transactions. This primarily involved the USDT stablecoin from Tether, according to TRM Labs experts.

Our Illicit Crypto Economy Report covers eight key trends we’re tracking from 2023, including a drop in overall illicit volume year-on-year. Get your copy here: https://t.co/zAVIymATB5.

— TRM Labs (@trmlabs) March 27, 2024

Among the main trends, experts highlighted a 22% year-on-year reduction in the “illicit crypto economy”—from ~$50 billion to ~$35 billion.

Approximately one-third of all crimes in the industry are related to scams and fraud.

The share of illegal operations in the total volume also decreased by about 9%, amounting to 0.63%.

TRM analysts noted that their reports provide higher estimates of criminal activity compared to other industry experts. They claim to consider an expanded range of networks like Polygon and BNB Chain, as well as a broader spectrum of illicit volumes, including those related to sanctioned activities.

In terms of blockchains in 2023, TRON was followed by Ethereum and Bitcoin, with shares of illicit transactions at 24% and 18%, respectively. The network founded by Justin Sun increased its share from 41% to 45%.

USDT accounts for $19.3 billion of the total volume of illegal operations. For Tether’s stablecoin, this represented approximately 1.63% of the total value moved over the year. In comparison, Circle’s USDC had a rate of 0.05%.

TRM noted that during the year, Hamas and several terrorist groups imposed a moratorium on cryptocurrency donations. This trend intensified after October 7 (Hamas attacks on Israel), when international organizations increased oversight.

“Nevertheless, among those terrorism financing campaigns that continued to accept digital assets, the number of unique TRON addresses receiving USDT increased by 125%,” TRM specialists emphasized.

Other trends from last year included:

• revenues from hacking attacks fell by more than 50%—to $1.8 billion from $3.7 billion in 2022. This was largely due to reduced earnings from North Korea-related groups;
• volumes of operations from sanction lists sharply decreased—from $25.4 billion to $16.2 billion. This was facilitated by a threefold increase in the number of companies and individuals added to relevant U.S. government lists;
• darknet marketplace drug sales remained roughly the same, at $1.6 billion compared to $1.3 billion the previous year;
• the volume of scams and fraud slightly decreased—to $12.5 billion from $13.9 billion.

In January, experts from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime noted the growing popularity of USDT as a tool for money laundering.

Responses were published by both the TRON team led by Sun and the USDT issuer Tether.