Chainalysis: Share of crime-related transactions in DEX turnover was 0.02%.

For 2020, criminals moved through decentralized exchanges (DEXs) $34 million — 0.024% of turnover for that period ($144.3 billion). The Block, citing Chainalysis.

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According to the firm’s chief researcher Jacob Illum, this year the figure could surpass the previous value.

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Data: Chainalysis.

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One factor will be the discovery by analytical firms Chainalysis and Elliptic of new traces of illicit activity that they had previously missed. This was the case with PlusToken, disclosed the following year after its active operation.

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The other reason is the growing popularity of the DeFi space among cybercriminals. According to Illum, they are attracted by the lack of human control in transactions executed via smart contracts.

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“The question remains open whether the popularity of platforms whose administrators have the ability to block illicit transactions will endure, as we have seen during the KuCoin hack,” the expert wrote.

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The third factor is the decentralisation of dark-net marketplaces. As an example, Illum cited Televend, which uses encrypted automated chat bots in Telegram. Buyers place orders in the seller’s automated chat, and then the bot sends a Bitcoin address.

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“Televend earns commissions on each deal, but effectively does not touch the funds, so there is no central organisation that law enforcement could track with blockchain analysis. Hiding transactions this way is much easier,” the specialist explained.

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As reported, Chainalysis analysts linked 1.1% of crypto transactions by value to illicit activity in 2019. In 2020 this figure fell to 0.34%.

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