Crypto money-laundering hit $82 billion in 2025, researchers say
Money launderers received at least $82 billion in cryptocurrencies last year, up sharply from $10 billion in 2020, driven in part by fast growth among Chinese-speaking groups, blockchain researchers said on Tuesday.
The fastest-growing category has been Chinese-language money-laundering networks, which emerged during the pandemic and processed almost $40 million worth of crypto per day in 2025, U.S.-based blockchain research company Chainalysis said in a report.
Blockchains create a record of the wallet addresses involved in cryptocurrency transactions, but identifying who is behind the wallets is difficult.
However, Chainalysis said it had identified nearly 1,800 active wallets used by Chinese-language money-laundering…
