How incredibly easy it is to launder money with cryptocurrencies

With the popularity of tokens, criminals are on the lookout for new victims to scam

In recent years we have witnessed how a multimillion dollar market has gone from nothing, to everything; This popularity is feverish and fans of crypto assets are increasingly relying on investing.

So much so, that sometimes there is no market cessation, this also refers to the new cryptocurrency technologies that come out with more and more momentum, and many times from the dark web, hiding as the perfect smokescreen for money laundering and all that these illegal actions entail.

Many times we do not even imagine how this can be possible, from the simplest forms to the similar tricks taken from a large production film, each one of them present in this article to let you know the hidden danger of digital assets.

Money Laundering: A Criminal Poetry

We have heard the term "money laundering" practically since we have become involved in our current environment, but have we really fully understood what it means to launder the traces of actions called "illegal"?

A world where businesses are part of the society and economy of a population, they are the perfect facade to pass an exorbitant amount of money obtained in a criminal way, as a supposed capital to make a business come true, that although it does not bring benefits large economic, ill-gotten money turns into "good money" earned in a legal way.

There is no exact point when this began to occur, it only arrived and has remained as a way in which criminals seek to redeem themselves in a stiff image within the world, while still in illegal situations of large sums of money.

With change and technology, these situations are increasingly difficult to maintain, since traces of their adventures can be found, but now a new "undetectable" way is known to launder criminal money.

The point where cryptocurrencies come in

Being digital currencies without a physical presence in the real world, without a trace of a financial entity with regulations and restrictions in a place on the planet, it is usually so easy to become an anonymous person by moving any amount of money "supposedly invested" in bitcoin, ether or Doge. The possibilities seem to be endless.

There are almost 10,000 cryptocurrencies around the world, and not counting that this number is growing every month, while its movement capacity is between 1.8 trillion or 2.1 trillion dollars this year 2021.

This large number that explains how the investment of crypto assets is clearly volatile and will never be the same, but we cannot hide how impressive it is to know this dramatic figure, that we imagine that it is not easy for cybercriminals to assimilate either.

The amount, according to analysis, of movements with money laundering stamp is almost half of the trillions that all cryptocurrencies added together move per year.

How do criminals launder money with cryptocurrencies?

The trace by these means can be indecipherable if you already have a knowledge of which specific asset should be used, so that the intended situation is fulfilled with complete peace of mind.

The most frequent illicit actions through cryptocurrencies are payments for an illegal service and bribery payments, although there is also the most detestable way of laundering money within crypto assets; create a cryptocurrency using reliably zero-earned funds.

Looking further on this topic, we have seen cases where they sometimes leave the job done and leave it forgotten, or simply steal from the people who invested in the token.

These situations are very varied, and the criminal mind is always looking to innovate, which makes it more difficult to follow along.

Are NFT also involved in these cases?

The NFTs more than anyone, are stuck in this sack of the dark web, we can say that for a longer time than they were created they are part of a crime trail. Art as such is still a way of laundering money.

That is why we see many artists who find their own works surprisingly at NFT auction, because there is no copyright and price control.

The art has an indefinite price, the author could sell it for $20, and tomorrow someone else can auction it for $200,000, and a criminal who knows how to handle this digital art business well can launder millions with just one work.

Dark web in the real world

When you mention the dark web, you can already feel the heavy atmosphere, because it gives us an idea that this line of the web is anything but a comforting place and the last where you want to be.

On the part of cybercriminals, it is an excessively crowded place, and this is practically classified as their "home".

The dark web enters the scene when the trace of an illicit transaction is much more hidden, but we also see that it helps when criminals want to cash that money.

Because how do we change thousands or millions of cryptocurrencies to dollars so easily without leaving any record? The dark web helps in the same way with these cases, but using virtual currencies already assigned with the best characteristics that help to carry out these processes the best possible for me.

The most used cryptocurrencies for digital money laundering on the Dark Web

Cybercriminals have already determined which are the cryptocurrencies that can combine in a good way with this type of adventures.

It is not difficult to guess that the characteristics that a cryptocurrency must have to be part of this list, is to be as anonymous as possible, that the security of personal information is the best kept secret.

Among those tokens we have bitcoin, which, because it is the lowest queen of all cryptocurrencies, has the first place in use.

It is followed in second place by monero, the cryptoactive most stained by illicit entities due to the total anonymity of its blockchain; third place is held by ether for digital art, and lastly, the Dash coin.

Although we see this way of laundering money as possible, that does not mean that cryptocurrencies have to change their way of being in the market, it is just one more way that criminals can use for money laundering, so if you have to take precautions, but digital currency does not have to be a subject that transmits fear to us.