Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Thursday, Oct 02, 2025

Rise of crypto laundries: how criminals cash out of bitcoin

Rise of crypto laundries: how criminals cash out of bitcoin

In the world of online crime, anonymous cryptocurrencies are the payment method of choice. But at some point, virtual hauls need to be turned into hard cash. Enter the “Treasure Men”.

Finding a Treasure Man is easy if you know where to look. They are listed for hire on Hydra, the largest marketplace by revenues on the dark web, a part of the internet that is not visible to search engines and requires specific software to access.

“They will literally leave bundles of cash somewhere for you to pick up,” says Tom Robinson, chief scientist and co-founder of Elliptic, a group that tracks and analyses crypto transactions.

“They bury it underground or hide it behind a bush, and they’ll tell you the co-ordinates. There’s a whole profession.”

The Russian-language Hydra offers plenty of other ways for criminals to cash out of cryptocurrencies, including exchanging bitcoin for gift vouchers, prepaid debit cards or iTunes vouchers, for example.

The ability to hold cryptocurrencies without divulging your identity has made them increasingly attractive to criminals, and particularly to hackers who demand ransoms after breaking into companies.

In 2020, at least $US350 million ($454 million) was paid out to ransoms to hacker gangs, such as DarkSide, the group that shut down the Colonial Pipeline last month, according to research group Chainalysis.

But at the same time, every transaction in a cryptocurrency is recorded on an immutable blockchain, leaving a visible trail for anyone with the technical know-how.

Several crypto forensics companies have sprung up to help law enforcement track criminal groups by analysing where the currencies flow to.

These include New York’s Chainalysis, which raised $US100 million at more than a $US2 billion valuation earlier this year, London-based Elliptic, which boasts Wells Fargo among its investors, and US government-backed CipherTrace.

In total, in 2020 some $US5 billion in funds were received by illicit entities, and those illicit entities sent $US5 billion on to other entities, representing less than 1 per cent of the overall cryptocurrency flows, according to Chainalysis.

Dark exchanges


In the early days of cryptocurrencies, criminals would simply cash out using the major cryptocurrency exchanges. Elliptic estimates that between 2011 and 2019, major exchanges helped cash out between 60 per cent to 80 per cent of bitcoin transactions from known bad actors.

By last year, as exchanges began to worry more about regulation, many of them bolstered their anti-money laundering and know-your-customer processes and the share shrank to 45 per cent.

Stricter rules have pushed some criminals towards unlicensed exchanges, which typically require no know-your-customer information. Many operate out of jurisdictions with less stringent regulatory requirements or lie outside of extradition treaties.

But Michael Phillips, chief claims officer at cyber insurance group Resilience, says such exchanges tend to have lower liquidity, making it harder for criminals to transfer crypto into fiat currencies. “The aim is to impose further costs on the business model.”

There are an array of other niche off-ramps into fiat currency. Chainalysis suggests that over-the-counter brokers in particular help facilitate some of the largest illicit transactions – with some operations clearly set up for that purpose alone.

Meanwhile, smaller transactions flow through the more than 11,600 crypto ATMs that have sprung up globally with little to no regulation, or through online gambling sites that accept crypto.

Forensics companies


Against this backdrop, the crypto forensics companies use technology that analyses blockchain transactions, together with human intelligence, to work out which crypto wallets belong to which criminal groups, and map out a picture of the wider, interlocking crypto criminal ecosystem.

With an overview of how criminals move their money, their research has shone a light on how hackers are renting out their ransomware software to networks of affiliates, while taking a cut of any proceeds.

Kimberly Grauer, head of research at Chainalysis, says hackers are increasingly paying for support services from other criminals, such as cloud hosting or paying for the login credentials of their victims, with crypto, giving investigators a more complete picture of the ecosystem.

“There’s actually fewer needs to cash out in order to sustain your business models,” she says. “We can see the ransom paid, and we can see the splitting and going to all the different players in the system.”

Losing the trail


But cyber criminals are increasingly wielding their own high-tech tools and techniques in a bid to muddy the crypto trail that they leave behind.

Some criminals undertake what is known as “chain-hopping” – jumping between different cryptocurrencies, often in rapid succession – to lose trackers, or use particular “privacy coin” cryptocurrencies that have extra anonymity built into them, such as Monero.

Among the most common tools for throwing investigators off the scent are tumblers, or mixers – third-party services that mix up illicit funds with clean crypto before redistributing them.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
UK, Canada, and Australia Officially Recognise Palestine in Historic Shift
New Eye Drops Show Promise in Replacing Reading Glasses for Presbyopia
Dubai Property Boom Shows Strain as Flippers Get Buyer’s Remorse
Top AI Researchers Are Heading Back to China as U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
UAE-US Stargate Project Poised to Make Abu Dhabi a Global AI Powerhouse
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Kuwait opens bidding for construction of three cities to ease housing crunch.
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Big Oil Slashes Jobs and Investments Amid Prolonged Low Crude Prices
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Did the Houthis disrupt the internet in the Middle East? Submarine cables cut in the Red Sea
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Iran Faces Escalating Water Crisis as Protests Spread
More Than Half a Million Evacuated as Typhoon Kajiki Heads for Vietnam
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Cristiano Ronaldo Makes Surprise Stop at New Hong Kong Museum
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
×