Chainalysis: Volume of crime-related cryptocurrency transactions fell to $10 billion

The analytics firm Chainalysis reported a decline in the 2020 volume of cryptocurrency transactions linked to criminal activity.

In 2020, ransomware revenue went up 4x, even as crime overall fell sharply as a share of all cryptocurrency activity. Read the intro to our 2021 Crypto Crime Report here to get a full summary of the latest trends. https://t.co/qq1aMEwGjy

— Chainalysis (@chainalysis) January 19, 2021

In 2019, criminal networks accounted for 2.1% of total transaction volume (about $21.1 billion). In 2020, the indicator fell to 0.34% (about $10 billion).

Source: Chainalysis.

The main reason analysts cite for the decline in the share of criminal transactions is the growth of the cryptocurrency industry. The total transfer volume for the year tripled.

Chainalysis acknowledged that in 2019 it underestimated the number of active addresses used for criminal activity. This was due to the detection of crimes after data had been tallied. The analysts say that the 2020 figures could rise for the same reason.

Earlier the firm reported that cryptocurrency scammers’ revenues fell by 33% due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As noted, Group-IB experts named Bitcoin, Monero, Zcash, Dash and Komodo the most popular among criminals.

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