Crypto-money laundering falls markedly in 2023 – report

A notable decrease in cryptocurrency transactions linked to illicit activities took hold in 2023, Chainalysis said in a recent report, with $22.2B laundered through crypto, down 29.5% from $31.5B a year earlier. Crypto-money laundering involves moving funds into cash using mechanisms that are intended to obscure their origins. Such services could include intermediary services, personal digital wallets, crypto mixers and decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, and fiat off-ramping services like centralized exchanges and crypto ATMs. Chainalysis attributed the Y/Y drop in illicit crypto activity to multiple factors, from lower crypto trading volume to new increased regulatory scrutiny. The latter development comes…