Bitcoin is Criminals’ ‘Favorite’, Claims Blockchain Forensic; Used in 95% of Crypto Crimes
Bitcoin is the reigning champion of cryptocurrency criminals. That’s the conclusion of blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis, which discovered that bitcoin is used in 95% of crypto crimes.
This finding isn’t surprising since bitcoin is by far the most popular and widely used of the 2,000 digital currencies around today.
Levin: ‘bitcoin is by far the favorite’ of criminals
“Bitcoin is by far the favorite,” Jonathan Levin, co-founder of Chainalysis, told Fortune. Interestingly, Levin says bitcoin is preferred over “privacy coins” such as Monero because it’s the most valuable and most-traded.
Indeed, many of the recent drug busts involving fentanyl purchases were uncovered through blockchain analysis because buyers paid for the illegal opioid with bitcoin.
Manhattan DA Indicts Dark Web Drug Dealers for Laundering $2.3 Million in Bitcoin https://t.co/xAX615EpWl
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Blockchain tracing is helpful for drug busts
Blockchain forensics analysis has been very useful for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and the Department of Homeland Security in their efforts to crack down on illegal drug activity.
“There is the ability to tie some of those cryptocurrency transactions either to the pharmacies in China or to the services that people are using to distribute fentanyl,” Levin says. “Homeland Security and the DEA have actually become really good at apprehending those people.”