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CipherTrace cyrptocurrency crime and anti-money laundering report

Crypto crime: Combatting hacks, thefts, and fraud in the decentralized finance ecosystem

The last seven months have been thrilling for us.

In October 2021, Mastercard acquired CipherTrace. Together, we’ve been accelerating our efforts to ensure that the crypto economy is instilled with the same trust and peace of mind that consumers currently experience with more traditional payment methods.

Now that we’re part of the Mastercard family, we wanted to continue with the Cryptocurrency Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Report, but bring a new flavor to it. You’ll see the design is fresh and content is slimmed down to provide our key findings from 2021 and Q1 2022.

So here we go!

It’s no secret that cryptocurrency activities skyrocketed in 2021, with the market cap peaking near $3T in November 2022. Since 2019 to March 31, 2022, it’s grown 1,456 percent. Yes, that’s pretty significant.

Even with all that growth, most blockchain analysis suggests that illicit activity, as a percentage of total activity, declined in 2021 (compared to 2020). To caveat, the fact remains that not all illicit activity is known whether that’s in traditional financial channels, in crypto, or in other informal value transfers. So, take any numbers you see from us or others with that perspective in mind.

Regardless, illicit activity has shifted into DeFi, NFTs, next generation mixing services, and more. Meanwhile, global regulation is evolving constantly in an effort to keep pace.

There’s loads more insight in the report, so take a look and if you have any questions, email us at [email protected].

Inforgraphic: CipherTrace crime and anti-money laundering report, June 2022

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