Report by OCCRP

(Excerpt shared below. To read full report, go to: https://www.occrp.org/en/news/report-describes-cryptos-350-billion-shadow-war)

Crime syndicates and hostile states — specifically Russia, North Korea and Iran — are increasingly turning to cryptocurrency to launder money and evade sanctions, according to a new report that estimates $350 billion has been laundered globally between 2005 and 2025.

The study, Confronting the Illicit-Finance Hydra in Crypto Markets: Protecting Retail Investors and Disrupting Hostile Government Exploitation, examined 164 documented money-laundering cases over the past two decades. It found that cryptocurrency has enabled designated individuals, terrorist groups and entire countries to sidestep sanctions and “process billions of dollars, either voluntarily or involuntarily.”

In an interview with Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, Alexander Browder, the researcher behind the report and the Founder of the Global Cryptocurrency Laundering Database, cautioned that the $350 billion figure likely understates the true scale of the problem. While that amount reflects what has been documented in open sources, he said, the real total is probably far higher — “many multiples” of the reported sum.

“The database is based on open sourced reporting of crypto laundering, but many schemes have never seen the light of day and have not shown up in any court records, news reporting or law enforcement announcements,” Browder added.

The report describes Russia, North Korea and Iran as particularly “prolific” in exploiting cryptocurrency markets to dodge sanctions.

It points to the Russian cryptocurrency exchange Garantex, which it says processed more than $100 billion in transactions, with 82 percent of its total volume linked to sanctioned entities worldwide.