In the year when Moscow rain forgot to fall and ledgers coughed out their secrets, illicit crypto inflows burst into the room like a chorus of devils negotiating rent, tallying a record sum of $158,000,000,000-yes, the kind of number that makes auditors check their souls twice. A new report, dripping with цифры and irony, approves the spectacle. 💰😈
These inflows strutted upward by 145 percent-from $64.5 billion in 2024 to this gargantuan tally-snapping the long drought and crowning five years of financial theater with a thunderous bow. TRM Labs proclaims the scene, as if the heavens themselves tugged at the curtain. 🎭💸
The illicit transactions were driven by sanctioned entities, fraud and hacks, with ransomware also seeing record highs-an unholy trio performing on a stage laid with crypto glitter and pop-up error messages. 😅🕶️
“Despite the increase in absolute illicit volume, illicit volume as a proportion of overall crypto volume fell in 2025, from 1.3% in 2024 to 1.2% in 2025.”
“While illicit activity represented a small share of overall on-chain volume, illicit entities captured 2.7% of available crypto liquidity in 2025, using a new metric that frames risk relative to deployable capital rather than raw transaction volume.”
Sanctions volume was dominated by Russian transactions, with the sanctioned ruble-pegged stablecoin A7A5 accounting for more than $72 billion in total volume-an assertion delivered with the gravity of a bell tolling in a bank vault. 🏦🔔
“On-chain activity indicates that A7 functions as a hub connecting Russia-linked actors with counterparties across China, Southeast Asia, and Iran-linked networks, reflecting a deliberate shift toward crypto-enabled, state-aligned financial infrastructure.”
TRM Labs says China is playing an exponentially increasing role in illicit crypto transactions, because apparently even the Great Wall enjoys a good darknet neighborhood watch. 🇨🇳🔍
“TRM analysis showed that activity associated with Chinese-language escrow services and underground banking networks has grown sharply over time, with adjusted crypto volume rising from approximately USD 123 million in 2020 to over USD 103 billion in 2025.”
“This sustained growth reflects the increasing reliance of a wide range of illicit actors, including scam networks, cybercrime groups, and sanctions evasion intermediaries, on escrow-based crypto services for settlement and cash-out across the APAC region.”
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2026-01-12 13:27