As digital assets and decentralised platforms proliferate, criminals are refining money-laundering schemes. One tactic is to split large sums into tiny transfers across many wallets.<\/p>\n
By 2025 the method has become widespread, taxing even seasoned blockchain analysts who try to identify the true sources of funds and the final cash-out venues.<\/p>\n
How do millions hide behind hundreds of $50 transfers? Which tools make sense of this crypto-chaos? And can a digital trail ever be followed to its end? Grigory Osipov, director of investigations at Shard, explains.<\/p>\n
Microtransactions are small transfers, typically worth a few dollars. Used at scale, such flows can add up to tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. Fraudsters break assets into numerous transactions to mask provenance and frustrate tracing.<\/p>\n
The scheme unfolds in four steps:<\/p>\n
Many cryptocurrency exchanges and services set thresholds that trigger enhanced checks (for example, transfers above $10,000). Measures can include risk scoring, holding transactions pending review, or requesting documents to prove source of funds. Splitting helps avoid automated flags and keeps transfers within a \u201csafe\u201d range.<\/p>\n
Large volumes of tiny transfers complicate analysis of transaction chains\u2014especially when each fragment passes through assorted DeFi protocols or cross-chain bridges<\/a>. The result is data \u201cnoise\u201d that obscures the bigger picture.<\/p>\n The pattern also mimics ordinary user behaviour. By spreading funds across dozens of addresses and transactions, perpetrators hide among millions of genuine users on exchanges, NFT platforms and DeFi networks, reducing the odds that monitoring systems will flag activity as suspicious.<\/p>\n Microtransactions create apparent chaos: hundreds of tiny transfers, dozens of wallets, a mix of swapping services and NFT venues. Yet modern tools grow more precise, surfacing links between elements that look disconnected.<\/p>\n The core technique is to build a money-flow graph. Each address is a node; each transaction, an edge. Even if a sum is shattered into a hundred micropayments, clustering, temporal analysis and assessments of joint control can reconstruct the route from origin to ultimate recipient.<\/p>\n In Russia, cryptocurrency investigations are also becoming more technological. Off-chain data play a vital role\u2014such as KYC<\/span> information, IP addresses, law-enforcement records and open-source intelligence. Combined with on-chain analytics, these inputs help form a coherent picture of fund movements and, in some cases, deanonymise wallet owners.<\/p>\n Since the early 2020s some have used DeFi and NFTs to launder money. Decentralised platforms offer speed and pseudonymity without intermediaries, helping offenders obfuscate assets obtained dishonestly.<\/p>\n By 2025 numerous schemes run through DeFi protocols and NFT marketplaces. According to Chainalysis, in 2023 attackers stole $1.1bn via DeFi protocol hacks\u2014down 64% from 2022, when losses reached $3.1bn. The main tools include:<\/p>\nHow analysts reconstruct links between microtransactions<\/h2>\n
How DeFi platforms and NFTs are used to muddy the trail<\/h2>\n