Maintaining their position from 2023, stablecoins continued to be the most popular crypto of choice for moving illicit funds, accounting for 63%, according to new estimates by Chainalysis.
LIST | Top 5 Major Stablecoin Milestones in 2024
In this piece, we highlight the top five major stablecoin milestones between January and December 2024, offering a closer look at their rising influence and potential to reshape the financial landscape.https://t.co/z0bgZhXfJ6 pic.twitter.com/9hkZmCDlq0
— BitKE (@BitcoinKE) January 2, 2025
According to the blockchain analytics firm, nearly $41 billion worth of illicit crypto volume was recorded last year [2024].
However, this figure could increase to $51 billion, considering historical trends and the ongoing identification of more illicit addresses.
“2024 was likely a record year for inflows to illicit actors as these figures are lower-bound estimates based on inflows to the illicit addresses we’ve identified up to today,” Chainalysis wrote.
“A year from now, these totals will be higher as we identify more illicit addresses and incorporate their historic activity into our estimates,” it said.
‘Through 2021, BTC was unequivocally the cryptocurrency of choice among cybercriminals, likely due to its high liquidity.
Since then, however, we have observed a steady diversification away from BTC, with stablecoins now occupying the majority of all illicit transaction volume (63% of all illicit transactions)”
– Chainalysis
This new reality is part of a broader ecosystem trend in which stablecoins also occupy a sizable percentage of all crypto activity, demonstrated by total growth YoY in stablecoin activity around 77%, Chainalysis added.
Overall, current estimates for the share of all attributed crypto transaction volume associated with illicit activity also fell to 0.14% from 0.61% in 2023, though this is also expected to rise with more data from the year [2024].
Stolen funds rose by about 21% year-over-year, reaching $2.2 billion.
While decentralized finance (DeFi) services accounted for the largest portion of stolen funds, centralized services were the prime targets in Q2 2024 and Q3 2024.
REPORT | Losses From Hacks and Fraud Double to $573 Million in Q2 2024
In total, the ecosystem has witnessed $920,940,078 in losses year-to-date (YTD) across 135 specific incidents, primarily driven by over $358 million lost in May 2024.https://t.co/M8CqPezC4H @immunefi pic.twitter.com/hff8KwFi8D
— BitKE (@BitcoinKE) July 1, 2024
Private key compromises made up the largest share (43.8%) of stolen cryptocurrency in 2024.
North Korean hackers were responsible for stealing a record $1.34 billion from crypto platforms, which constitutes 61% of the total stolen for the year.
REPORT | Hackers Stole Over $2.2 Billion From Cryptocurrency Users in 2024, North Korea 🇰🇵 Main Culprit
Private key compromises accounted for the largest share of stolen crypto in 2024 at 43.8%.https://t.co/ZP0GjL6Mc7 pic.twitter.com/KgBnoFEITG
— BitKE (@BitcoinKE) December 22, 2024
In 2024, both high-tech and low-tech fraud and scams were widespread, Chainalysis said, with high-yield investment scams and pig butchering being the most successful types.
Additionally, there has been a noticeable rise in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in fraudulent activities, including highly personalized sextortion attacks.
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