Crypto Criminals Traded Over $649 Billion in Stablecoins Last Year

Bitrace’s 2024 Crypto Crime Report shows that criminals moved $649 billion in stablecoins to high-risk addresses. Stablecoins’ total use in fraud and money laundering grew, but the legitimate sector grew even faster.

The report also tracked a few other components, like gambling and darknet markets. It highlighted the growing enforcement actions against stablecoin money laundering, as Tether and Circle froze over $1 billion in assets last year.

Stablecoins and Crypto Crime – A Concerning Trend?

Stablecoins are a vital component of the international crypto ecosystem, but they fulfill a similar role in crime. For example, crypto sleuth ZachXBT alleged last month that North Korean hackers have “epidemic” participation in this space.

Bitrace’s 2024 Crime Report details illicit activities all across the industry, but it focuses specifically on stablecoins.

Stablecoin Usage in Crime 2024. Source: Bitrace

Its data claimed that $649 billion in stablecoins went to high-risk addresses last year, a definite increase from 2023. However, these transactions only amounted to 5.14% of global stablecoin volume, a decrease from 5.94% the previous year.

In other words, the stablecoin sector is growing faster than its usage in crypto crime.

Naturally, Tether makes up the overwhelming majority of these transactions since it’s the most popular stablecoin. Tron and Ethereum were the most popular blockchains for USDT stablecoins, making up around 90% of the crime-related volume.

Ethereum’s presence grew relative to Tron, but the latter blockchain still represents more than 75% of transactions.