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With the extraordinary growth of cryptocurrencies, a new record was recorded in 2021: that of transactions linked to criminal activities “via” these electronic currencies. Their number has almost doubled to the equivalent of $ 14 billion.
It’s a drop in the bucket amid the nearly $ 16 trillion (roughly $ 14 trillion) of cryptocurrency transactions completed last year. But it is a warning in this market. A true “Wild West” as the SEC nicknamed it, the policeman of the American markets.
In 2021, the equivalent of $ 14 billion passed through addresses linked to illegal activities, against 7.8 billion in 2020, estimated Thursday, January 6, the analysis firm Chainalysis. But the firm specializing in the study of transactions on blockchain, the technology behind bitcoin and the vast majority of cryptocurrencies, puts into perspective with regard to the exceptional growth of this market : According to him, illegal transactions represent only 0.15% of the total use of cryptocurrencies.
The carpet draw
The scams alone represent nearly 7.8 billion dollars (almost 7 billion euros). One of the techniques is called “carpet pulling”. Explanation: Investors are buying a new cryptocurrency. This immediately drives up its price. Once the price of the currency at its highest, its creators scammers resell in mass thus causing the price to collapse before disappearing. This is what happened recently with a cryptocurrency called Squidcoin in reference to the South Korean series. Squid Game.
The fight against these illegal transactions is progressing. In June, US authorities managed to directly recover the equivalent of $ 2.3 million in bitcoins out of the $ 4.4 million the oil company Colonial Pipeline had paid in ransom to hackers.
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(with AFP)
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