NEW YORK—Stablecoins, which are cryptocurrencies pegged to a stable value like the U.S. dollar, are being used more to back crypto crime, a new report shows.
In a news study Chainalysis data reveal the disproportionate use of stablecoins for both of those massive categories of illicit crypto transactions over the last year, according to the company.
By analyzing blockchains, Chainalysis said it determined that stablecoins were used in fully 70% of crypto scam transactions in 2023, 83% of crypto payments to sanctioned countries like Iran and Russia, and 84% of crypto payments to specifically sanctioned individuals and companies, Wired reported.
According to the Wired report, those numbers far outstrip stablecoins' growing overall use—including for legitimate purposes—which accounted for 59% percent of all cryptocurrency transaction volume in 2023.
Plenty of ‘Sanctions Evasions’
“In total, Chainalysis measured $40 billion in illicit stablecoin transactions in 2022 and 2023 combined,” Wired reported. “The largest single category of that stablecoin-enabled crime was sanctions evasion. In fact, across all cryptocurrencies, sanctions evasion accounted for more than half of the $24.2 billion in criminal transactions Chainalysis observed in 2023, with stablecoins representing the vast majority of those transactions.”
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