2026 Crypto Crime Report Introduction
In 2025, we tracked a notable rise in nation-state activity in crypto, marking the latest phase in the maturation of the illicit on-chain ecosystem. Over the past few years, the crypto crime landscape has become increasingly professionalized; illicit organizations now operate large-scale on-chain infrastructure to help transnational criminal networks procure goods and services and launder their ill-gotten crypto. Against that backdrop, we have seen nation-states moving into this space, both by tapping into these same professionalized service providers and by standing up their own bespoke infrastructure to evade sanctions at scale. As nation-states plug into the illicit crypto supply chains originally built for cybercriminals and…
