Crypto money laundering to exceed $82B by 2025, driven by Chinese services

On-chain money laundering is projected to surge from $10 billion in 2020 to over $82 billion by 2025, according to a forecast by blockchain data analytics firm Chainalysis. The report noted that the scale of cryptocurrency money laundering has expanded rapidly over the past five years, a trend largely driven by services with Chinese roots. The Chinese-language money laundering network (CMLN) is now believed to account for approximately 20% of all known illicit activities. Chainalysis attributed the rapid growth to increased liquidity in the cryptocurrency market and the professionalization of laundering services that operate openly across messaging platforms and various blockchains.