The blockchain analytics arm of Bitfury recently released a report that looked at darknet entity interactions with cryptocurrency exchanges and other darknet entities throughout the first quarter of 2020 compared to darknet activity from the past three years. The report noted that bitcoin continues to be a financial tool for darknet entities,” and despite cryptocurrency exchanges and governments around the world putting more strict regulations around the crypto industry, darknet cash flows are still on the rise.
BTC sent from one darknet entity to another grew significantly.
Crystal Blockchain report revealed that the percentage of bitcoins sent from one darknet entity to another grew from 10% in Q1 2019 to 19% in Q1 2020, which highlights an overall growth in darknet revenue and cooperation. However, fewer darknet entities are now using crypto exchanges. The amount of bitcoins sent from darknet entities to crypto exchanges that require users to verify their accounts significantly declined from Q1 2019 to Q1 2020, dropping from 14,073 BTC to 5,455 BTC, according to the report. Darknet entities are keeping away from crypto exchanges as more and more exchanges continue to implement FATF guidelines.
Bitcoins sent to mixers by darknet entities increase
According to the report, the amount of BTC sent to mixers by darknet entities rose significantly in 2020. The bitcoins sent to mixers increased from 790 BTC in Q1 2019 to 7,946 BTC in Q1 2020.” The same growth was also observed in USD, an increase from $3m in Q1 2019 to $67m in Q1 2020. The report further revealed that in Q1 2019, only 1% of darknet BTC was sent to mixing services. And in Q1 2020, 20% of darknet BTC was sent to mixing services.
Earlier, the leading peer-to-peer cryptocurrency exchange Localbitcoins reported that it has managed to significantly reduce the amount of darknet-related transactions done using the platform. The P2P platform claimed that it had witnessed a decline of over 70% in transactions from darknet markets between September 2019 and May 2020.
