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Chainalysis, a company that analyses the use of crypto, a few hours ago published a report on how cryptocurrencies were used in 2020 and what percentage is being exploited for illegal activities.
Often, outsiders who want to discredit the industry claim that cryptocurrencies are only used by criminals, but this is just one of the thousands of applications of crypto, in the same way as with cash.
Illegal crypto transactions
The Chainalysis report points out that only 0.40%, or $9 billion in terms of volume, are used by criminals, which is not even close to the majority.
As the chart shows, the percentage has dropped a lot compared to 2019, although this number has also changed due to the fact that volumes in general have increased.
Or perhaps it could be that criminals are starting to realize that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are not really anonymous and that sooner or later they can be tracked down, as has often been the case in the past.
This 0.40% is mostly made up of transactions from scam projects such as Plus Token ($2 billion out of 9) and the dark web market.
Ransomware and Covid-19
What also increased a lot in 2020 compared to the previous year are ransomware, with a growth rate of 311%. This is also due to the growth of smart working, which has highlighted the gaps in cybersecurity on computers used at home.
But that’s not all, as in 2020 we’ve seen several ransomware attacks on the Italian city of Rieti or the University of Maastricht.
Fortunately, other despicable crimes are virtually non-existent percentages in the crypto world. In fact, as can be seen in the graph, the other percentages consist mainly of stolen funds, which is what happens in hacker attacks on centralized platforms such as exchanges and wallets.
In any case, the report will be expanded and published in full this February.