Chainalysis: more than 4,000 ‘criminal whales’ hold $25 billion in cryptocurrency

Almost 4% of ‘whale balances’ are controlled by criminals. According to Chainalysis’s latest report, these wallets hold more than $25 billion in cryptocurrency.

How much cryptocurrency do cybercriminals currently hold? Read our research on criminal balances and criminal whales to find out. https://t.co/SkJJUNhjQj

— Chainalysis (@chainalysis) February 16, 2022

Chainalysis classified as ‘criminal whales’ all private wallets that received more than 10% of the funds from illicit sources. Analysts identified 4,068 such addresses, which accounts for 3.7% of the total number of crypto whales.

According to the company, 1,374 such entities received between 10% and 25% of the illicit funds. On the balances of 1,361 whales, the share of criminal funds ranged from 90% to 100%.

“While stolen assets predominate in the aggregate volume of criminal funds, darknet markets are the largest sources of illegal proceeds for criminal whales. Fraud is second, and theft is third,” the report says.

In 2021 criminal addresses received a record $14 billion. However, by year-end these balances were valued at $11 billion. The lion’s share of the funds — 93% or $9.8 billion — consisted of stolen assets. 

Chainalysis noted that sellers and administrators of dark-net marketplaces tend to hold their assets longer than other criminal actors before liquidation. Wallets holding stolen funds, by contrast, seek to dispose of cryptocurrency as quickly as possible. 

Analysts also stressed that across all categories of criminal balances there is a general trend—the time funds are held is shortening. This is attributed to heightened pressure from law enforcement agencies.

In 2021, according to Chainalysis, cybercriminals laundered cryptocurrency worth $8.6 billion — a figure that was 30% higher than in 2020.