Darknet Entities Sent $67M Worth of BTC to Bitcoin Mixers in Q1 2020

Bitfury Crystal, a blockchain analytics platform has released a new report detailing the use of bitcoin transaction mixers by darknet users from 2019 to Q1 2020. According to the latest report by Bitfury Crystal, darknet entities sent a significantly low amount of bitcoin to exchanges and other entity types in Q1 2020, though the dollar value of these funds grew by 65 percent, as compared to the same period last year.

Notably, the report has revealed that in Q1 2020, darknet users employed the use of mixers to cover their transaction paths more and during the same period, the amount of bitcoin sent to exchanges with strict KYC/AML procedures decreased significantly, a strong indication that bad actors prefer using anonymous services like mixers for their illicit deals than exchanges. Interestingly, the report also reveals that in Q1 2020, darknet entities also sent a lower share of bitcoin to exchanges (46 percent) without KYC requirements, as compared to the same period last year (60 percent).

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