Chainalysis researchers analyzed illicit cryptocurrency transactions from July 2020 to June 2021.
Read our latest blog for a breakdown of cryptocurrency-related crime in Eastern Europe, with a special focus on scams and ransomware. https://t.co/YLqMBsPsMq
— Chainalysis (@chainalysis) September 1, 2021
According to the experts, Eastern Europe is the second region by the total value of cryptocurrency sent to addresses associated with illicit activity. The largest share fell to fraudulent schemes.
Users from this region also account for a large share of traffic to fraudulent cryptocurrency sites.
Ukrainian residents lead this metric by a wide margin.
At the same time, addresses in Eastern Europe receive large sums from fraudulent addresses. Analysts say this may indicate that not only victims but also many operators of scam projects are based in these countries, the analysts noted.
Chainalysis noted that this is the only region with a total transaction volume above $400 million, where more than 0.5% of the total value of transferred cryptocurrency is linked to illicit activity.
Users from Eastern Europe also send the largest amount of crypto assets to darknet markets. This is largely linked to the Hydra marketplace focused on this region, the specialists noted.
More than half of the amount sent by users from Eastern Europe to fraudulent addresses was attributed to the Finiko pyramid scheme.
During the period, Eastern Europe addresses also received $46 million from ransomware addresses. Analysts note that this amount may be higher. One reason is the link between many versions of malware and hacker groups that, as specialists believe, are based in Russia.
Payments to various extortionists linked to the Eastern European region accounted for 90% of total payouts to such programs.
“These data clearly show that an important step in the fight against ransomware is cooperation with local law enforcement,” noted Chainalysis.
Earlier, company specialists stated that Russia and Ukraine entered the top three in terms of the volume of cryptocurrency transactions in the dark market.
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