- Former Elliptic senior executive Tara Annison presented a report on cybercrime at EthCC6 in Paris. According to him, bitcoin’s share of illicit financial flows is falling.
- To finance illegal activities and launder funds, criminals are choosing mostly stablecoins, particularly USDT.
The former head of technical advisory at Elliptic, Tara Ennison, says cybercriminals are losing interest in bitcoin. She presented the agency’s joint report with Chainalysis and TRM Labs at the EthCC6 conference in Paris.
Annnison cited statistics from 2016 through 2022 as an example. Bitcoin’s share of illicit financial flows fell from 97 percent to 19 percent during that period.
Hackers are using USDC and USDT instead, Ennison noted:
“These assets are very easily laundered through DEX. Large trading volumes, extensive liquidity. It’s actually quite disturbing news.”
Annnison, however, also noted the positive aspect of this trend. She said attackers’ use of centralized assets makes it easier for them to find and track capital.
“What we’re seeing now is an increase in the number of frozen USDT and USDC accounts,” Ennison emphasized.
The USDT and TRON accounts in particular stand out. According to the expert, these are the assets most often used to finance illegal activities.
The number of “Ponzi schemes” has remained flat. This type of fraud accounts for $7.8 billion in losses in 2022, Ennison emphasized.
The DEX hack, in turn, is losing popularity among attackers due to high risks and little potential profit, the report said.
Reminder, we previously covered a Binance report on this topic. The company also concluded that hackers have shifted their focus from protocols to end users.
The company also concluded that hackers have shifted their focus from protocols to end users.