Jan 15, 2020 ⋅ 3 min read
What do criminals do with illicitly-gained cryptocurrencies? In an excerpt from their latest Crypto Crime report, Chainalysis shows how criminals are laundering their cryptocurrency and cashing out into fiat. Looking at on-chain data, Chainalysis identified how exchanges have emerged as the leading destination for illicitly-gained cryptocurrencies through the use of their OTC desks.
According to the report, Binance and Huobi, account for more than 50% of all the illicit Bitcoin received by exchanges, an amount totaling $1.4 billion. On these venues, a small segment of the total accounts are responsible for most of the illicit Bitcoin received. Chainalysis suggests that many of these accounts are OTC brokers.
OTC brokers facilitate the majority of all cryptocurrency trade volume, and are typically associated with exchanges despite operating independently. Many of these OTC brokers have substantially lower KYC requirements than the exchanges they operate on, creating the opportunity for illegitimate OTC brokers to emerge and service money laundering criminals. Chainalysis has identified 100 of these brokers, which it calls the “Rogue 100,” that Chainalysis believes provide money laundering services. The Rogue 100 are extremely active traders and received more than $3 billion worth of Bitcoin over the course of 2019.
Chainalysis believes that these OTC brokers are a key enabler of every type of crime they cover in its report, by providing fiat offramps. To combat this practice they suggest that every exchange conduct more extensive due diligence on OTC brokers operating on their platforms, and ensure that their OTC desks have effective KYC processes in place.
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