Criminal Trails in Crypto Analysed in Elliptic’s Latest Research

Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic has unveiled new findings that spotlight the increasing magnitude of cross-chain criminal activity. The company’s 2023 report titled ‘The State of Cross-chain Crime’ offers a comprehensive look into these illicit actions.

A concerning $7 billion in funds, marked as either high-risk or illicit, have been cleaned through cross-chain and cross-asset services. A significant part of this, around $900 million, can be traced back to North Korean hackers, specifically the Lazarus Group.

Drawing from data in the inaugural edition of the report, published in October 2022, Elliptic had previously pinpointed the laundering of $4.1 billion of dubious funds via decentralized exchanges, coin swap services, and cross-chain bridges up until July 2022. Projections from the company back then estimated that by the close of 2023, the number would touch $6.5 billion and soar to $10.5 billion by 2025.

However, with advanced research techniques enabled by Elliptic’s Holistic blockchain analytics, current findings paint a grimmer picture. From July 2022 to July 2023 alone, a an amount of $2.7 billion has been laundered, pushing the total sum laundered to $7 billion until July 2023.

Among these cross-chain crimes, the Lazarus Group emerges as a major player. It stands as the dominant source of funds laundered through cross-chain bridges and is ranked third in overall cross-chain criminal activities, with their laundering sum surpassing $900 million.

Moreover, the report indicates an alarming trend where sanctioned entities and terrorists now possess assets across over 26 blockchains, diversifying their holdings across more than 80 different assets.

Further complicating matters, criminals have started adopting advanced cross-chain techniques, like limit orders and derivatives trading, making their illicit trails harder to trace.

Dr. Tom Robinson, Co-founder and Chief Scientist at Elliptic, remarked on the company’s commitment, “Over the past decade, Elliptic has helped to mitigate risk and bring transparency to blockchains by identifying and tracking illicit activities within the crypto ecosystem.” He added that with their newer Holistic blockchain analytics tools, “cross-chain crime continues to grow, as bad actors continue to exploit services such as decentralized exchanges (DEXs), cross-chain bridges, and coin swap services.”