Overview
- Illicit volume jumped 145% year over year to $158 billion even as it fell to about 1.2% of total on‑chain activity.
- Russia‑linked rails dominated sanctions evasion, with the ruble‑pegged A7A5 processing roughly $72 billion and the A7 wallet cluster handling at least $38 billion tied to platforms like Garantex and Grinex.
- About 95% of inflows to sanctioned entities moved via stablecoins, with a near‑30% drop on KYC exchanges and a more than 200% surge on decentralized and other non‑KYC services.
- TRM highlights increasingly professional, state‑aligned laundering networks, including Chinese‑language escrow and underground banking operations that expanded to over $100 billion in activity.
- Hacks and exploits netted nearly $3 billion, with roughly half attributed to the February Bybit breach.