Crypto Crime Surges to $51B in 2024: Stablecoins Fuel Illicit Activity

Crypto crime in 2024 likely exceeded $51B, far higher than reported: Chainalysis

The 2025 "Crypto Crime Report" by Chainalysis reveals a staggering $51 billion in illicit transaction volume, shattering previous records and assumptions. The report paints a grim picture of hyper-professionalized cybercrime networks, where fraud cartels, nation-state hackers, and AI-powered scams dominate the landscape.

Initial estimates suggested a decline in crypto crime for 2024. However, deeper analysis now suggests otherwise. Criminals have adopted advanced money laundering techniques, hinging on stablecoins, decentralized finance (DeFi), and AI-powered deception, which created the illusion of decreased crime.

Ransomware payments dropped 35% year-over-year (YoY), yet the battle is far from won. Cybercriminals are abandoning Bitcoin (BTC) in favor of stablecoins, Monero (XMR), and DeFi exploits. Stablecoins are the new kingpin of illicit crypto activity, accounting for 63% of all illicit crypto transactions in 2024.

Stablecoins offer speed, liquidity, and regulatory blind spots that make illicit transactions easier to execute and harder to trace. Unlike Bitcoin, which can experience longer confirmation times, stablecoins provide near-instantaneous transactions and US dollar-pegged stability. This makes stablecoins ideal for laundering large sums of money without worrying about price fluctuations and makes tracking transactions harder due to faster shifts through mixers, crosschain bridges, and DeFi protocols to obscure transaction origins and evade detection.

Ransomware groups have rebranded, diversified, and adapted. Following the takedown of LockBit, smaller ransomware-as-a-service groups like RansomHub have absorbed displaced operators, demonstrating how cybercriminal networks swiftly adapt to enforcement actions. Another sector of crypto crime continues to thrive in plain sight through simple market manipulation. Decentralized exchanges (DEXs) remain fertile ground for wash trading, where fraudsters orchestrate schemes that inflate trading volumes and deceive investors.

The crypto market remains plagued by wash trading, fake volume, and pump-and-dump schemes. The 2025 Chainalysis report estimates that $2.57 billion in illicit