I thought that this might be good job on investigative journalism and a confirmation of the theory that exchanges are part of a global money laundering ring. However, again, when I read where this report was based from, the skeptical me thought that this was only another paid for advertisment from the corrupt world of bitcoin news media as usual.
https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/money-laundering-cryptocurrency-2019
Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis said Wednesday that it traced $2.8 billion in Bitcoin being sent by criminals to crypto exchanges in 2019, with the bulk of those transactions going to Binance and Huobi.
"While exchanges have always been a popular off-ramp for illicit cryptocurrency, theyve taken in a steadily growing share since the beginning of 2019. Over the course of the entire year, we traced $2.8 billion in Bitcoin that moved from criminal entities to exchanges," Chainalysis noted, with 27.5% of that amount going to Binance and 24.7% going to Huobi.
On the two exchanges, a small group of accounts that received more than $100 billion worth of BTC in 2019 took in most of the illicit funds, Chainalysis found. 75% of the total amount received on Huobi and Binance went to 810 of the highest-receiving accounts.
"Overall, just over 300,000 individual accounts at Binance and Huobi received Bitcoin from criminal sources in 2019," Chainalysis noted.
According to the analytics firm, these large accounts likely belong to over-the-counter (OTC) brokers that "are typically associated with an exchange but operate independently."
Although Huobi and Binance both have Know-Your-Customer (KYC) procedures in place, such requirements are lower for OTC desks, hence the existence on the two exchanges of some OTC desks that specialize in providing money-laundering service to criminals, Chainalysis claimed. Read in full https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/53138/chainalysis-traced-2-8-billion-in-bitcoin-being-sent-to-crypto-exchanges-by-criminals-last-year