Is cryptocurrency a threat to anti-money laundering?

However, the disruptive presence of cryptocurrency has also increased the potential for criminals to misuse the technology and conduct crypto laundering, evading conventional anti-money laundering controls. In 2019, criminals laundered around $2.8 billion in Bitcoin through cryptocurrency exchanges, an increase of around $1.8 billion from 2018.

How can cryptocurrency service providers detect and prevent money laundering?

In order to detect and prevent money laundering, cryptocurrency service providers should be vigilant for suspicious transactions and suspicious customer behavior. In 2020, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) released a report into the methodologies of crypto laundering, which set out the following red flag indicators:

How much money is laundering on the blockchain?

But while you'd expect that the money laundering resulting from such a broad spectrum of illegal activity to have taken place across a large number of services, Chainalysis reports that just a small group of 270 blockchain addresses have laundered around 55% of cryptocurrency associated with criminal activity.

Is crypto laundering a new methodology?

While crypto laundering is a relatively new methodology, global regulators have been taking steps to introduce dedicated crypto AML measures.