In 2024, transfers to high-risk addresses surged to $649 billion, accounting for 5.14% of all stablecoin transactions, according to a report by analysts at Bitrace.
The largest share of transactions involves Tether’s stablecoin on the TRON network, although the share of USDT and USDC on Ethereum has also increased.
Transactions related to online gambling reached $217.8 billion, up 17.5% from 2023. The share of USDC in gambling rose to 13.36% from 5.22% the previous year.
Bitrace recorded a sharp increase in fraud: $52.5 billion in stablecoins flowed to suspicious addresses, more than in all previous years.
Wallets associated with money laundering received $86.3 billion, slightly less than in 2023. This is attributed to stricter countermeasures and checks at major centralized exchanges.
In 2024, issuers Tether and Circle collectively froze over $1.3 billion, double the figures of the past three years. The volume of all transactions to such addresses reached $12.9 billion.
The report highlights that stricter regulations in Hong Kong after the third quarter of 2023 significantly reduced the inflow of funds to suspicious addresses.
Despite the scale of the crimes, Bitrace analysts emphasized that the market is reaching a new level of transparency, and regulatory actions are already improving the situation.
As reported by Global Ledger, the total damage from 265 crypto hacks throughout 2024 and the first two months of 2025 exceeded $3.83 billion.