CRYPTO NEWSWIRE: The Crypto Industry's $28 Billion in "Dirty Money"
NEW YORK TIMES: As President Trump has championed crypto and the industry has gone mainstream, funds from scammers and other criminal groups have flowed onto major crypto exchanges.
THE CYBER CRIME PROBLEM.... President Trump has started his own cryptocurrency business and vowed to make the United States the world’s “crypto capital.” Crypto companies have declared themselves safe and secure.
And a procession of major industries, from Wall Street banks to online retailers, have experimented with digital coins.
But even as the crypto industry gains mainstream acceptance, at least $28 billion tied to illicit activity has flowed into crypto exchanges over the last two years, according to an examination by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists,
The New York Times and 36 other news organizations around the world.
The money came from hackers, thieves and extortionists.
It was traced to cybercriminals in North Korea and scammers whose schemes stretched from Minnesota to Myanmar.
Over and over, the analysis showed, these groups have moved money onto the world’s largest exchanges, which are online marketplaces where people can convert U.S. dollars or euros into Bitcoin, Ether and other digital coins.
Among the recipients of this “dirty money” was Binance, the world’s biggest crypto exchange, which participated in a $2 billion business deal with Mr. Trump’s crypto firm in May.
The money also flowed into at least eight other prominent exchanges, including OKX, a global platform with a growing footprint in the United States, according to the analysis.
“Law enforcement can’t cope with the overwhelming amount of illicit activity in the space,” said Julia Hardy, a co-founder of zeroShadow, a crypto investigations firm. “It can’t go on like this.”
The early days of digital currencies were dominated by thieves and drug dealers, who were attracted by the speed and anonymity of crypto, which make it a useful vehicle for money laundering.
Bitcoin, the most popular virtual currency, underpinned dark-web markets where merchants sold narcotics and other outlawed substances, leading to overdose deaths and criminal charges.
Since then, the crypto industry has grown exponentially and become professionalized, with billions of dollars a day in legitimate transactions.
The largest exchanges have pledged to crack down on criminals who use crypto to move funds.
Binance pleaded guilty to money-laundering violations in 2023 and agreed to pay a $4.3 billion penalty to the U.S. government after processing transactions for terrorist groups like Hamas and Al Qaeda.
Last year, it declared that the crypto industry was “an extremely unwelcoming place to bad actors.”
At the same time, Mr. Trump has made crypto a cornerstone of his family business and ended a regulatory clampdown on the industry.
Shortly before the 2024 election, he and his sons founded World Liberty Financial, a crypto start-up that is poised to generate tens of millions of dollars a year from the business deal involving Binance.
Last month, Mr. Trump granted a pardon to Changpeng Zhao, Binance’s founder, who had served a four-month term in prison after the company’s plea agreement....
nytimes.com/2025/11/17/techn…
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