Money laundering report 2019: $11 billion out of China via cryptocurrency

By Selena 01/9/20 11:37 AM

Chinese Blockchain security firm PeckShield released a cryptocurrency money laundering report in 2019. According to the report, a total of about $ 11.4 billion was removed from China via cryptocurrency in 2019.

Report on money laundering situation through cryptocurrency 2019

And mainly money laundering activities through these two forms:

Ransomware hacking.
Scam project.

According to PeckShield data, there were a total of 63 security-related incidents (hacks, malware, etc.) in 2019. And recorded total damage of up to $ 7.68 billion. Statistics show that from the loss of $ 290 million in 2017, $ 4.76 billion in 2018 has now reached $ 7.68 billion in 2019. The number of incidents also increased by 4.7 times compared to the year. 2017.

Among the exchange incidents that occurred in 2019, the biggest one was the 7,000 BTC case that was stolen in the Binance hack and 23 million XRP that were leaked from GateHub.

Source: PeckShield

And the amount of damage caused by fraud is $ 7.374 billion. There are three major cryptocurrency scams: PlusToken, OneCoin, and TokenStore, with PlusToken, estimated at least $ 3 billion and OneCoin $ 4 billion. As shown in the figure below, fraud and incident losses in 2019 are much higher than in 2018.

Source: PeckShield

The total amount of money exceeding $ 10 billion is not only damaging to exchanges and investors but also a concern for the mass sale of criminals, making it a hazardous job to market sentiment.

There is a need to tighten regulations

This is the total amount of cryptocurrencies that flow out of China and abroad from 2017 to 2019.

2017: $ 10.1 billion.
2018: $ 17.9 billion.
2019: $ 11.4 billion.

The combined amount can amount to 1% of China’s foreign currency reserves (about $3 trillion).

Although China initially banned cryptocurrency trading to prevent asset flows, it has been shown that the crackdown is likely to intensify in the future. The Chinese government is moving forward with policies to support virtual currencies in reforming the “foreign exchange market.”

Besides, FATF, an international organization that oversees money laundering, recommends a so-called ‘travel rule’ in 2019 and issues government regulations on sharing transaction data of users with other exchanges and cryptocurrencies. South Korea, the United Kingdom, and Japan are approaching the implementation phase.