Chainalysis: 4,068 Criminal Whales Collectively Hold $25 Billion in Cryptocurrency

Chainalysis data shows that 4,068 criminal whales (roughly 4% of all whales) hold more than $25 billion worth of cryptocurrencies.

The blockchain analytics firm defines a criminal whale as any private wallet holding more than $1 million worth of cryptocurrency, with more than 10 percent of the funds coming from illicit addresses linked to activities such as scams, fraud, and malware.

The data comes from the “Criminal Balances” section of the Crypto Crime Report, which examines blockchain criminal activity in 2021 and early 2022. The wide-ranging report also covers topics such as ransomware, malware, darknet markets, and NFT-related crimes.

“Overall, Chainalysis has identified 4,068 criminal whales holding over $25 billion worth of cryptocurrency. Criminal whales account for 3.7% of all cryptocurrency whales — private wallets holding over $1 million worth of cryptocurrency .”

The data showed that 1,374 whales had 10% to 25% of their balances from illicit sources, while 1,361 whales had 90% to 100% of their balances in illicit funds. Those whales with between 25% and 90% of their illicit fund balances totaled 1,333.

Percentage of balances obtained by whales via illicit addresses: Chainalysis

"While stolen funds dominate overall criminal funding balances, darknet markets are the largest source of illicit funds going to criminal whales, followed by fraud and stolen funds," the report reads.

Illegal trading activities

In terms of illicit trading activity, criminal addresses received over $14 billion in 2021, a staggering 79% increase compared to $7.8 million in 2020, the report revealed.

Value Gained by Crypto Crime Types: Chainalysis

Fraud accounted for the largest share of last year's $14 billion, up 82 percent year-over-year to $7.8 billion. Decentralized finance (DeFirug pull in particular was highlighted as a major source of fraud at $2.8 billion:

“We should note that approximately 90% of the total value lost to rug pulls in 2021 can be attributed to the fraudulent centralized exchange Thodex, whose CEO shortly after the exchange stopped user withdrawals. Disappeared."

The amount of theft also increased by 516%, accounting for $3.2 billion in illegal trading activities, and the DeFi space has once again become an area of concern.

On the positive side, Chainalysis noted that illicit addresses accounted for only 0.15% of all transaction volume in USD terms of approximately $15.8 trillion in 2021, down from 0.34% the year before.

“Crime is becoming a smaller and smaller part of the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Law enforcement’s ability to combat cryptocurrency-based crime is also evolving. We’re seeing several examples of this in 2021, from U.S. commodity futures trading to From the Commission’s allegations of several investment scams, to the FBI’s massive REvil ransomware crackdown, to the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control’s sanctions on Suex and Chatex,”

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