United Arab Emirates, Dubai, April 12, 2022: Due to the surge in non-fungible token (NFT) popularity in 2021, Chainalysis tracks cryptocurrencies worth at least US $ 44.2 billion sent to NFT-related smart contracts last year from just US $ 106 million in 2020. bottom.
However, according to Chainalysis, this surge in popularity has attracted the attention of cybercriminals, especially the limited but increasing use of NFTs for money laundering and clothes transactions. In a money laundering analysis, the company found that the value sent to the NFT marketplace by illegal addresses increased significantly in the third quarter of 2021 and exceeded US $ 1 million worth of cryptocurrencies. bottom. This number increased again in the fourth quarter, reaching a high of just under US $ 1.4 million. Approximately US $ 284,000 was associated with sanctions risk.
“Although limited today, money laundering, especially transfers from licensed cryptocurrency businesses, represents a great risk for building trust in NFTs, markets, regulatory agencies, and law enforcement agencies. Needs to be more closely monitored by, “research director Kim Grauer commented in a chain analysis. “As the NFT market continues to grow, we are looking at this activity in 2022.”
Wash Trading-execution of transactions where sellers are on both sides of the trade to draw a misleading picture of the value and liquidity of an asset-is a selected group of 110 malicious actors collectively created. Proved a very successful technique for profits of over US $ 8.8 million. However, this tactic poses a financial risk to fraudulent operators, as another group of 152 traders lost a total of US $ 417,000 in this effort due to the amount of money they had to spend on related gas charges. It wasn’t without it.
Chain analysis experts say that while NFT-based crypto crimes are clearly gaining momentum, they are only a small part of the US $ 14 billion worth of crypto-based fraud that the company tracked across 2021. I emphasized. Technology, NFTs offer potential abuse. Our industry will consider all the ways this new asset class can change the way blockchains are linked to the physical world, while building products that ensure NFT investments as safe and secure as possible. That is also important. Fortunately, blockchain data and analysis can find users selling NFTs to self-funded addresses, so consider bans and other penalties for the worst criminals in the market. You can, “Kim concludes.
