Illicit crypto activity totaled $40.9 billion in 2024

In 2024, the total volume of illicit cryptocurrency transactions reached $40.9 billion, with 63% conducted in stablecoins, according to Chainalysis analysts.

?The Introduction to the 2025 Chainalysis Crypto Crime Report is here! ? Check out our blog to learn the latest about the on-chain illicit ecosystem’s increasing ? professionalization, featuring a broadening array of illicit actor organizations. https://t.co/ejjlwHEUm1

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They forecast the final tally will climb to $51.3 billion for the year once subsequent revisions, historical activity and the identification of new illicit addresses are accounted for.

“Criminal” transactions accounted for 0.14% of total volume. Analysts attribute bad actors’ tilt toward stablecoins to a 77% year-on-year rise in overall activity for that asset class. Even so, ransomware operators and darknet-market vendors continue to generate illicit revenue in bitcoin. Monero was not included in the Chainalysis report.

Stolen funds rose by roughly 21% year on year to $2.2 billion. The largest share came from DeFi services, while centralized platforms were targeted in the second and third quarters of last year.

Private-key compromise accounted for 43.8% of criminal revenue. North Korean hackers stole a record $1.34 billion last year.

The most successful schemes were high-yield investment fraud and “pig butchering.” The use of artificial intelligence grew, for example in highly personalised sextortion attacks.

Darknet marketplaces took in $2 billion, down from almost $2.3 billion in 2023, while revenues at scam shops more than halved to $220.1 million. Chainalysis partly attributed this decline to the closure of the large crypto payments processor UAPS.

Analysts also highlighted the rise of organized criminal networks using cryptocurrency. In 2024, their addresses received $10.8 billion out of the $40.9 billion total. In this context they cited the Huione Guarantee online trading platform, which, including supplier activity, has processed more than $70 billion since 2021.

In the summer of 2024, Chainalysis estimated that cryptocurrency laundered since 2019 totaled $100 billion.

At the same time, by their calculations, illicit revenues from crypto scams and hacks fell by 29.2% and 54.3% in 2023, respectively.