Regulators have repeatedly criticized the growth of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin because of their popularity with criminals but the technology's transparent transactions can also work against law breakers.
The lesson is one that has been learned by cybercriminal hackers Darkside the hard way after the organization extracted a $4.4 million ransom from oil company Colonial Pipeline in bitcoin.
The financial forensics to track crypto transactions are more complex on the decentralized and anonymous networks. While some users keep their bitcoin safe in an offline wallet, for example on a USB stick or hard drive, Darkside's bitcoins were always linked to an online account. The complex tracking of transactions has become an industry in its own right. Firms specializing in blockchain analysis have developed, such as Chainalysis in the United States and Elliptic in Britain. According to a Chainalysis report released in February, cryptocurrency transactions for illegal purposes reached $10 billion in 2020, one percent of total cryptocurrency activity for the year. In 2019 criminal activity using the online currencies reached a record $21.4 billion.
Elliptic analysts believe they have identified the bitcoin wallet that received the ransom payment from Colonial Pipeline to Darkside, and found at least one other payment of $4.4 million. Market regulators have put pressure on cryptocurrency exchange platforms. Many, such as Coinbase, now require users to disclose their identity before making transactions. But other platforms are not following the same rules.
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