2023 Crypto Crime Trends: Illicit Cryptocurrency Volumes Reach All-Time Highs Amid Surge in Sanctions Designations and Hacking

January 13, 2023

Those allegations make this year’s Crypto Crime Report a bit tricky, as some feel that those businesses should be treated as criminal enterprises. Despite the market downturn, illicit transaction volume rose for the second consecutive year, hitting an all-time high of $20.1 billion. In general, less money in crypto overall tends to correlate with less money associated with crypto crime. As one might expect, total transaction volume fell with the onset of the bear market, and as we showed above, illicit transaction volume grew slightly. While most of that activity is likely Russian users using a Russian exchange, most compliance professionals treat this as illicit activity.