OblongCrypto Asset Risk Management Firm Reveals Criminals Used DeFi Exchanges (DEXs), Cross-Chain Bridges, and Coin Swap Services to Obfuscate Over $4 Billion in Illegal Crypto Proceeds published a survey to
Some of the most prolific perpetrators include hackers, dark web markets, illegal virtual asset services, Ponzi schemes, and ransomware providers.
These findings highlight the rise of the cross-chain problem. This is a problem identified by Elliptic earlier this year, and one that is prevalent throughout the crypto space by posing significant risks to cryptocurrency services and criminal investigators.Recent sanctions against other established services used for money laundering such as tornado cache.
In previous research, Elliptic identified RenBridge, a cross-chain bridge that allows users to exchange assets between different blockchains, as a vector for criminals to traverse. Money Laundered Over $540 Million Only with illegal crypto assets.
The latest findings show that criminals are increasingly leveraging cross-asset and cross-chain transactions to evade legacy blockchain analytics solutions that cannot track such activity. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) first called for money laundering through cross-chain transactions (chain hopping) in his June 2022 report on the risks of virtual assets.
The key findings of the report are: The State of Cross-Chain Crime: Countering the New Era of Crypto Crime and Money Laundering in a Cross-Chain Worldthat is:
- Approximately $1.2 billion of cryptocurrency stolen from DeFi and exchange thefts has been exchanged using DEX, more than a third of all cryptocurrency stolen from investigated incidents.
- An additional $1.2 billion of illicit assets have been laundered using coin swap services, which allow users to exchange assets within and between blockchains without opening an account. Many of them are advertised on Russian cybercrime forums and are almost exclusively geared towards criminals.
- The risk of cross-chain and cross-asset obfuscation by sanctioned and seized terrorist organizations is increasing. Wallets connected to groups ultimately sanctioned by the US, including those used by North Korea to carry out multi-million dollar cyberattacks, laundered more than $1.8 billion through such technology. Did.
Elliptic’s report utilizes case studies and proprietary data to address the criminal use of decentralized exchanges, cross-chain bridges, and coin swap services.
As a direct response to the growing risk of cross-asset and cross-chain crime, Elliptic Holistic screening Allow crypto assets to be tracked simultaneously across all blockchains and assets.
Holistic screening sets a new standard for cryptocurrency compliance and risk management by enabling businesses to achieve cross-chain compliance efficiently and at scale. This eliminates the need for manual multi-asset research and replaces it with automated risk insights.