Wall Street Journal Report: $88 Million Laundered Through Crypto Exchanges Since 2016

A new report by Wall Street Journal is in the latest Bitcoin news – mainly for its goal of finding how much money has been laundered in the crypto world since 2016. According to the report, more than 46 cryptocurrency exchanges around the globe assisted criminals in laundering more than $88 million over the past two years.

The Journal’s investigation traced funds from more than 2,500 wallets that courts flagged for their involvement in criminal activities. To properly identify the intermediary portfolios, the Journal downloaded and compared them to the wallet addresses of suspected exchanges.

One of the largest recipients of illicit funds with offices in the US, according to the report, was ShapeShift AG. The company processed over $9 million out of the suspected $88 million over a two-year period. As an altcoin exchange service registered in Switzerland and operated in the US, ShapeShift allows people to trade Bitcoins and other digital coins anonymously.

Even though ShapeShift recently announced that it would oblige with KYC standards, the Journal did not cut any slack for this change of heart. As they indicated, the exchange is known for facilitating tainted transactions.
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However, the CEO of ShapeShift, Erik Voorhes, apparently does not like the report and has taken out his thoughts to Twitter, criticizing the “poorly-researched” piece as he mentioned.

2/2 Author cherry-picked data, excluding facts contrary to vilification narrative. $9m figure is less than 0.2% of our volume over the time-period. Meanwhile global money laundering through banks is 2-5%. Op-ed forthcoming.

— Erik Voorhees (@ErikVoorhees) September 28, 2018

The Journal also presented evidence from security researchers regarding the exchange of Bitcoin for Monero, the WannaCry ransomware attack in South Korea as well as one ICO that raised $2.2 million worth of Ethereum from investors and then went missing with the funds.