- Chainalysis discovered 372 wallets that profited from money laundering
- These addresses earned a total of $158.3 million
Analytical blockchain company Chainalysis warned that hackers have a new method of using their illegally obtained cryptocurrencies. Firm says mining pools could become new mixers for cybercriminals
According to a report from Chainalysis, 372 wallets used to store exchange deposits were discovered. They profited from both mining and laundering. In total, since 2018, these addresses have received about $158 million.
“Mining pools could be important in a money laundering strategy for many ransomware participants,” writes Chainalysis.
This way of laundering funds has been gaining popularity since 2018. There is a noticeable trend of ransomware-related wallets sending more and more funds to mining pools.
As an example, Chainalsysis cites a deposit wallet on a popular cryptocurrency exchange. The address received large sums from “extortion incidents” and mining pools. Of the $94.2 million sent to this deposit address, $19.1 million came from ransomware addresses and $14.1 million came from mining pools.
While funds were always sent to the exchange through intermediate wallets, Chainalysis found cases where the wallet that received ransomware funds directly transferred them to the wallet of the mining pool, which then sent the coins to the exchange. This could indicate that the wallets used for ransomware and the wallets associated with mining belong to the same owner, who uses mining as a way to launder criminal funds.