Blockchain and crypto can be a boon for tracking financial crimes

cointelegraph.com:

Governments around the globe have also become more aware of the crypto market and the various ways in which it can be regulated. 

Despite a growing adoption rate and involvement of mainstream financial giants, however, naysayers continue to portray crypto as a tool for miscreants and criminals.Several crypto platforms and decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols have been compromised over the years, owing to various code vulnerabilities or centralization problems. However, stealing of money is the easiest part, while moving that money and cashing it out is nearly impossible.

This is primarily because most crypto transactions are recorded on a public ledger which acts as a permanent trail, and even if the hacker uses various coin mixing services to hide its origins, powerful transaction monitoring tools can eventually identify such illicit trails.

Even coin mixing services themselves have started to block transactions associated or flagged as illicit.

Through rigorous study, crypto forensic firms such as Chainalysis and Elliptic have further debunked the notion that cryptocurrency provides an ideal tool for financial crimes and masking illicit activity.

A recent report by Chainalysis shows that the percentage of crypto transactions associated with illicit activities in 2021 was a mere 0.15%.

Cryptocurrencies have become more mainstream over the past couple of years, with the public prescription of the crypto market evolving from an internet bubble a couple of years ago to a reliable investment option today.

Dmytro Volkov, chief technology officer at crypto exchange CEX.IO, told Cointelegraph why the notion of crypto being primarily used by criminals is outdated:

He added that “as long as the security team stays proactive and