{"id":5725,"date":"2022-07-18T01:19:51","date_gmt":"2022-07-18T01:19:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/?p=5725"},"modified":"2022-07-18T01:19:51","modified_gmt":"2022-07-18T01:19:51","slug":"mixer-usage-sees-all-time-high-thanks-to-nation-affiliated-cybercriminals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/?p=5725","title":{"rendered":"Mixer usage sees all-time high thanks to nation-affiliated cybercriminals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\namzn_assoc_placement = \"adunit0\";\r\namzn_assoc_tracking_id = \"totafreearti-20\";\r\namzn_assoc_ad_mode = \"search\";\r\namzn_assoc_ad_type = \"smart\";\r\namzn_assoc_marketplace = \"amazon\";\r\namzn_assoc_region = \"US\";\r\namzn_assoc_default_search_phrase = \"crypto\";\r\namzn_assoc_default_category = \"All\";\r\namzn_assoc_search_bar = \"false\";\r\namzn_assoc_title = \"\";\r\namzn_assoc_rows =\"1\";\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"\/\/z-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/onejs?MarketPlace=US\"><\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p>Crypto mixer usage reached an all-time high in 2022 with a significant contribution from sanctioned entities and cybercriminals with known state affiliations, according to Chainalysis\u2018 recent report.<\/p>\n<p>The numbers show that the value received by mixers reached its all-time high of $51.8 million on April 19, 2022.<\/p>\n<p>30-day moving average of daily value received by mixers (via Chainalysis)<\/p>\n<p>As the value obtained by mixers wildly fluctuates daily, the report considered the 30-day moving averages.<\/p>\n<p>Mixers aim at disconnecting the cryptocurrencies from their depositors. They work by pooling together all the deposited funds and re-distributing at random. Criminals often provide their second wallet address as the receiving end, and only by paying a small service fee they disconnect the stolen amounts from the stealing wallet address.<\/p>\n<h2>Why so popular?<\/h2>\n<p>Mixers have been seeing an increase in volume every quarter since the first quarter of 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Value received by mixers by source (via Chainalysis)<\/p>\n<p>Based on the data, the main reason behind the increase in volume seems like the growing share of centralized exchanges and DeFi protocols.<\/p>\n<p>However, the share of illicit activities has the highest contribution to reaching an all-time high in volume. The percentage of volume entering the mixers through criminal addresses is 23% in 2022, which has increased from 12% in 2021.<\/p>\n<h2>Illicit activities have the highest share<\/h2>\n<p>Mixers have been developed to provide extra privacy in cryptocurrency transactions. However, they also became a primary tool for crypto-laundering.<\/p>\n<p>Share of funds sent to mixers by address type (via Chainalysis)<\/p>\n<p>According to the numbers, nearly 10% of all funds sent to mixers come from illicit addresses, while the lawful ones are less than 0.3%.<\/p>\n<p>When the 10% illicit volume contributors are examined closely, sanctioned entities and stolen funds emerge as the top two categories.<\/p>\n<h3>Sanctioned entities<\/h3>\n<p>The below chart clearly displays a significant increase in volume entering the mixers from the wallets of sanctioned entities, especially in the second quarter of 2022.<\/p>\n<p>The quarterly value sent to mixers from illicit addresses by category (via Chainalysis)<\/p>\n<p>The report also examined the mixer platforms these sanctioned entities used. The results revealed that the Russian-based darknet market Hydra became the most used platform, accounting for more than half (50.4%) of all funds entering the mixers from sanctioned entities.<\/p>\n<p>Lazarus Group and Blender.io, affiliated with the North Korean government, became the second and third most used platform by sanctioned entities, respectively.<\/p>\n<h3>Stolen funds<\/h3>\n<p>Next, the report examines the contributors under the category of stolen funds in more detail.<\/p>\n<p>Illicit crypto received by mixers by source (via Chainalysis)<\/p>\n<p>The results revealed that cybercriminals organizations with known state affiliations had been the leading contributors to the category.<\/p>\n<p>It can be seen that Russian-based cybercriminals groups have been significant contributors to the category since 2018. However, it seems like North Korea has improved in the area and surpassed the Russians\u2019 dominance.<\/p>\n<h2>Get an Edge on the Crypto Market \ud83d\udc47<\/h2>\n<p>Become a member of CryptoSlate Edge and access our exclusive Discord community, more exclusive content and analysis.<\/p>\n<p>  <strong>On-chain analysis<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>  <strong>Price snapshots<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>  <strong>More context<\/strong><\/p>\n<p> Join now for $19\/month Explore all benefits<br \/>\n<br \/><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\namzn_assoc_placement = \"adunit0\";\r\namzn_assoc_tracking_id = \"totafreearti-20\";\r\namzn_assoc_ad_mode = \"search\";\r\namzn_assoc_ad_type = \"smart\";\r\namzn_assoc_marketplace = \"amazon\";\r\namzn_assoc_region = \"US\";\r\namzn_assoc_default_search_phrase = \"bitcoin\";\r\namzn_assoc_default_category = \"All\";\r\namzn_assoc_search_bar = \"false\";\r\namzn_assoc_title = \"\";\r\namzn_assoc_rows =\"1\";\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"\/\/z-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/onejs?MarketPlace=US\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/mixer-usage-sees-all-time-high-thanks-to-nation-affiliate-cybercriminals\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Crypto mixer usage reached an all-time high in 2022 with a significant contribution from sanctioned entities and cybercriminals with known state affiliations, according to Chainalysis\u2018 recent report. The numbers show that the value received by mixers reached its all-time high of $51.8 million on April 19, 2022. 30-day moving average of daily value received by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5726,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethereum-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5725"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5727,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5725\/revisions\/5727"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}