{"id":49981,"date":"2022-07-15T12:54:57","date_gmt":"2022-07-15T10:54:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crypto-economy.com\/?p=49981"},"modified":"2022-07-15T12:54:57","modified_gmt":"2022-07-15T10:54:57","slug":"cryptocurrency-mixer-usage-hits-all-time-high-chainalysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crypto-economy.com\/cryptocurrency-mixer-usage-hits-all-time-high-chainalysis\/","title":{"rendered":"Cryptocurrency Mixer Usage Hits All Time High"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Blockchain analytics firm, <strong>Chainalysis<\/strong>, suggests that the amount of cryptocurrencies streaming into crypto mixer services has attained an <strong>&#8216;all-time high&#8217;<\/strong> in 2022 as funds from illegitimate wallets belonging to malicious entities and criminal activity increased multifolds.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The burgeoning crypto space has witnessed cybercriminals look for ways to enhance the pseudo-anonymity of their transactions and launder the cryptoassets from their criminal activities. Of the many ways to launder their black money, these criminals rely on services known as <strong>cryptocurrency mixers<\/strong> or <strong>cryptocurrency tumblers.<\/strong> These mixers are designed to <strong>hide the identity<\/strong> of the sender and receiver of the transaction, providing complete anonimity from authorities.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">1\/ Mixers are receiving more <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/crypto?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#crypto<\/a> than ever in 2022. The 30-day moving avg reached an all-time high of $51.8M worth of crypto on 4\/19\/22, roughly doubling incoming volumes YoY. Let&#39;s break down the increase in mixer usage &amp; where those funds are going. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/oOIpHaWbYA\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/t.co\/oOIpHaWbYA<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/uOltJ0kHYX\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/uOltJ0kHYX<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Chainalysis (@chainalysis) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/chainalysis\/status\/1547570192011522050?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">July 14, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify\">How &#8216;Mixers&#8217; Obfuscate The Money Trail?<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">According to a <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.chainalysis.com\/reports\/cryptocurrency-mixers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">report<\/a> by Chainalysis, crypto mixers are intended to<strong> mix the digital money with that of other users<\/strong> in order to make multiple combinations with countless transactions wiping out the source and destination of crypto assets. Post mixing the tokens, each user can withdraw the entire amount deposited, minus a cut for the mixer. Since, the coins come from this jumbled pool, it&#8217;s <strong>harder for blockchain investigators to track<\/strong> the trail of the money. Chainalysis explained,<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>&#8220;Mixers are designed to provide more privacy in cryptocurrency transactions, but may also be used to obfuscate the source of funds, and, for lack of a better word, \u201cfool\u201d blockchain investigators.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">For instance, <strong>Tornado Cash<\/strong>, is a blockchain ethereum mixer that has gained great popularity in recent years, especially among cybercriminals. It is used for processing millions of dollars a day and was used, among others, by the perpetrators of the attack at <strong>Crypto.com<\/strong>, involving withdrawals of about <strong>$34 million<\/strong>, and by the hackers of the <a href=\"https:\/\/crypto-economy.com\/100-million-stolen-on-the-horizon-bridge\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Ronin attack<\/strong><\/a>, the blockchain network linked to the Axle Infinity game.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-49990 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/crypto-economy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/4_1-10.jpg\" alt=\"Cryptocurrency Mixer Usage Hits All Time High: Chainalysis\" width=\"1012\" height=\"471\" \/><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify\">Crypto Mixers Are Not Illegal<\/h2>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">5\/ Mixer usage is growing. We saw significant quarter-over-quarter increases starting in 2020, and while that growth has leveled off somewhat in 2022, it remains close to all-time highs. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/dScPiUW0ER\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/dScPiUW0ER<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Chainalysis (@chainalysis) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/chainalysis\/status\/1547570204921671680?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">July 14, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The report also claimed that mixers are receiving more cryptocurrency than ever in 2022 with the 30-day moving average reaching an all-time high of <strong>$51.8 million<\/strong> worth of digital money on April 19, 2022. These services are available not only in shady forums, but also on the surface web.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Despite their utility for criminals, mixers aren\u2019t <strong>illegal by their nature<\/strong>. Although there are many places where\u00a0such practice is not illegal and this service is available for everybody, the providers offer it as a privacy improvement, rather than a crypto laundering option.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-49991 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/crypto-economy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/5_2-4.jpg\" alt=\"Cryptocurrency Mixer Usage Hits All Time High: Chainalysis\" width=\"944\" height=\"440\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">According to the firm, almost <strong>10 per cent<\/strong> of all funds coming from illicit addresses are sent <strong>exclusively to crypto mixers<\/strong>. Additionally, data from the second quarter of 2022 shows that funds sent to mixers by illicit addresses come from <strong>stolen funds<\/strong> and <strong>fraud shops<\/strong>. Chainalysis further added,<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>&#8220;The data shows that mixers currently pose a significant money laundering risk, with 25% of funds coming from illicit addresses, and that cybercriminals associated with hostile governments are taking advantage.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Blockchain analytics firm, Chainalysis, suggests that the amount of cryptocurrencies streaming into crypto mixer services has attained an &#8216;all-time high&#8217; in 2022 as funds from illegitimate wallets belonging to malicious entities and criminal activity increased multifolds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":49999,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102,84,111,74],"tags":[5218,5536,9496,4656,4659],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crypto-economy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49981"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crypto-economy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crypto-economy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crypto-economy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crypto-economy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/crypto-economy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crypto-economy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crypto-economy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crypto-economy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crypto-economy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}