Ex-CIA officer says the scale of illicit Bitcoin operations is exaggerated

Authorities’ perceptions of the scale of Bitcoin’s use in illicit activity are greatly distorted, and blockchain analysis will enable effective crime-fighting. Forbes reports this, citing research by former CIA officer Michael Morell.

He conducted an independent analysis of the problems facing the cryptocurrency industry on behalf of the Crypto Council for Innovation (CCI). Alliance was created in April 2021 by venture firm Paradigm and is intended to lobby the industry’s interests.

According to Morell, during his work he relied on the assumptions of U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and ECB President Christine Lagarde, who have repeatedly criticized Bitcoin.

In fact, the levels of illicit activity in the Bitcoin ecosystem may be lower than in the traditional banking system, the author of the study noted.

Morell cited Chainalysis data indicating that in 2020 the share of illicit transactions in their total volume stood at 0.34% ($10 billion). The researcher assessed criminal operations tied to traditional intermediaries at 2-4% of global GDP, but expressed concern about the spread of privacy-oriented digital assets.

The former CIA officer added that the capabilities of analytics firms such as Chainalysis, CipherTrace and Elliptic “are impressive.” In his view, the United States will fall behind China if it continues chasing a ghost instead of leveraging blockchain and backing financial innovation.

Morell worked at the CIA for 33 years. During his career he served three times as acting director of the CIA.

Earlier Chainalysis analysts concluded that only one in 100 Bitcoin transactions is linked to illicit activity.

In 2020, criminals moved through decentralized exchanges $34 million — 0.024% of turnover for that period ($144.3 billion).

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