This has exceeded Elliptic’s previous estimates.

Elliptic analysts previously predicted that the amount of money laundering through DEXs, bridges, and token swaps will increase to $6.5 billion by the end of 2023 and to $10.5 billion by 2025.

Blockchain analytics platform Elliptic has found through recent on-chain analysis that criminals, including the notorious North Korean hacker group Lazarus, have laundered approximately $7 billion in illicit cryptocurrencies through decentralized exchanges (DEXs), cross-chain bridges, and token swap services.

According to the press release, the second edition of the State of Cross-Chain Crime report shows that sanctioned entities and terrorists currently hold more than 80 crypto assets on more than 26 blockchains.

$7 billion in crypto laundered through DEXs

In the first and previous edition of the State of Cross-Chain Crime report, published in October 2022, Elliptic analysts predicted that the amount of money laundering through DEXs, bridges, and token swaps would increase to $6.5 billion by the end of 2023, and to $10.5 billion by the end of 2025. At the time, the amount of illicit assets laundered through these platforms was just over $4.1 billion.

However, the current figure has surpassed Elliptic’s estimate, reaching $7 billion. The firm found that an additional $2.7 billion was laundered through cross-chain and cross-asset services between July 2022 and July 2023.

The Lazarus Group is the largest source of all illicit funds laundered through cross-chain bridges and the third largest source of all cross-chain crime, accounting for $900 million of the entire figure. Criminals are now using more sophisticated cross-chain methods such as derivatives trading and limit orders to conceal their money laundering activities.

Tom Robinson, co-founder and chief scientist at Elliptic, said:

“Over the past decade, Elliptic has helped reduce risk and bring transparency to blockchain by identifying and tracking illicit activity in the crypto ecosystem. Now, with the innovative insights from our holistic blockchain analytics capabilities released last year, we are seeing continued growth in cross-chain crime as bad actors continue to exploit decentralized exchanges (DEXs), cross-chain bridges, and coin swap services.”

Bad actors persist through hacks and scams

As the amount of crypto assets available through decentralized exchanges, cross-chain bridges, and token swaps continues to increase, bad actors are doubling down on token theft through hacks, exploits, and scams. #加密货币  #DEX