Eastern Europe Has The Sixth Biggest Crypto Service On The Darknet

Eastern Europe has the sixth bigger crypto services market on the darknet and according to Chainalysis, the region is responsible for more darknet activity and ransomware volume than any other region in the world, as we are reading more in the latest cryptocurrency news.

Blockchain analytics company Chainalysis, found that the darknet markets exert a disproportionate presence in Eastern Europe’s crypto sector. In an excerpt from the Geography of Cryptocurrency report, Chainalysis reported that Eastern Europe has the sixth biggest crypto service market on the darknet with the anonymous market Hydra dominating. The report shows that Hydra generated more than $1.2 billion in crypto revenue in one year’s time as the platform became the world’s largest darknet marketplace servicing the region only.

Chainalysis estimated that 1.4% of Eastern Europe’s $45 billion yearly crypto volume is sent to illicit entities. Shown in percentages, this number is slightly below Latin America where 1.6% of total transfer volume is destined for illegal platforms but the total volume in the region is smaller than the one in Eastern Europe. Eastern Europe is home to the “highest earning ransomware network administrators and ransomware-as-a-service-operators” with the region getting 23% of global transfers destined for the ransomware addresses.

Despite the high levels of crypto-powered cybercrimes, the report shows that the region saw a huge increase in the adoption of crypto assets for legitimate purposes with Ukraine and Russia ranking as the top two counties in the Global Crypto Adoption Index. About 85% of Eastern European crypto transfers are described as a professional sized transaction with about $10,000 with Chainalysis noting the emerging presence of the crypto fund managers.

In recent reports here on DC Forecasts, the unknown Eastern European cybercriminals group referred to as “CryptoCore” was hacking digital asset exchanges since the start of 2018 up to this day. The research outlined that the ongoing increase in digital assets have made it hard for exchanges to stay under the radar when it comes to constant hack attacks.

Threat actors of all types try to infiltrate into corporate networks for ransomware, theft, stealing money from exchanges, and reconnaissance, especially from the hot wallets of the users. Cybercriminals target digital asset platforms because they believe they are more vulnerable to attacks rather than the banks and other traditional financial instruments according to the report.