28th January 2026 – (New York) Illegal money laundering conducted through blockchain networks has grown at an extraordinary pace over the past five years, expanding from an estimated $10 billion in 2020 to more than $82 billion in 2025, according to Chainalysis’ newly released 2026 Crypto Crime Report. The findings highlight how the increasing ease of access to cryptocurrencies and deeper market liquidity have transformed both the scale and structure of illicit financial activity.
Chainalysis said laundering operations have become increasingly professionalised, evolving into highly organised services that are now deeply woven into international criminal networks. Rather than relying on ad hoc methods, today’s actors operate sophisticated systems capable of moving vast sums rapidly across borders.
One of the most striking shifts identified in the report is the growing role of Chinese-language money laundering networks, which accounted for roughly 20 per cent of traced illicit laundering activity in 2025. These networks have also become a preferred destination for proceeds from large-scale online scams, including so-called pig butchering schemes, as criminals seek alternatives to centralised exchanges that can freeze suspicious funds.
The data shows that since 2020, funds flowing into identified Chinese-language networks have expanded more than 7,000 times faster than inflows to centralised exchanges. This growth has significantly outpaced laundering activity linked to decentralised finance platforms and transfers between known criminal wallets. Messaging services, particularly Chinese-language channels on Telegram, now play an outsized role in facilitating these operations.
Chainalysis identified six core types of laundering services operating within this ecosystem, which together handled about $16.1 billion in illicit inflows during 2025 alone. The number of active entities has surged, with more than 1,799 on-chain wallets linked to these networks last year. Some services scaled with remarkable speed, with certain high-risk operations processing $1 billion in value in under eight months. Overall, the ecosystem is estimated to be moving close to $44 million every day, underscoring its industrial-level capacity.
At the heart of these networks are so-called guarantee platforms, which act as underground marketplaces and escrow services, matching buyers with laundering providers. Despite enforcement actions, platforms such as Huione and Xinbi continue to dominate, offering a wide range of techniques that include informal over-the-counter trading, money mule networks, discounted illicit crypto sales, gambling-related laundering and crypto mixing services. The report noted that these networks are highly resilient, often shifting platforms while keeping their core operations intact.
Chainalysis said recent sanctions and regulatory actions reflect growing concern among governments about the national security risks posed by these laundering systems. Measures taken by US authorities, including sanctions designations and new financial crime rules, have increasingly targeted the infrastructure supporting these networks rather than individual actors alone.
The firm warned that while blockchain technology offers unparalleled transparency, that visibility is only effective if paired with strong global enforcement and close cooperation between public authorities and private-sector analysts. Disrupting large-scale crypto laundering, the report concluded, will require coordinated intelligence sharing and a focus on dismantling the operators and services that underpin the system, rather than chasing isolated platforms one by one.
