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The Wall Street Journal, one of the major US newspapers, released a report on the role of crypto exchanges on money laundering on September 28. Under the title "How Dirty Money Disappears Into the Black Hole of Cryptocurrency", the magazine is seeking a general settlement with the crypto sector. In particular, the crypto exchanges are not doing well in the analysis.
A total of 2,500 wallets examined
As part of the investigation, the Wall Street Journal team examined deposits totaling 2,500 wallets. The selected wallets were known to be involved in illegal trades. With the help of blockchain company Elliptic, the journal tracked how users transferred wallet deposits to crypto exchanges.
As one of the main beneficiaries of the illegally acquired money, the Journal issued the Swiss crypto exchange ShapeShift. More than nine million of the total of 88 million US dollars, which have been washed since 2016, should therefore run on ShapeShift. One reason for this could be that until recently, the crypto exchange allowed the anonymous trading of cryptocurrencies. It's not until next week, October 1st, that ShapeShift KYC standards come into force.