New research from TRM Labs shows that Russian-speaking actors play the largest role in most crypto-related cybercrimes.
According to a TRM Report, the crypto-enabled cybercrimes include darknet drug sales, illicit crypto exchange activity, and ransomware schemes.
“Ransomware: Russian-speaking ransomware groups accounted for at least 69% of all crypto proceeds from ransomware in 2023, exceeding USD 500 million.
Darknet markets: Russian-speaking darknet markets comprised 95% of all crypto-denominated illicit drug sales on the dark web in 2023.”
According to TRM’s research, most of the illegal funds are being funneled through one Russian crypto exchange, Garantex.
“Sanctions: Inflows to just one Russia-based crypto exchange, Garantex, accounted for over 80% of crypto volumes belonging to all sanctioned entities internationally.”
According to the report, many of these actors are known to be inside Russia. Furthermore, some even have links to the Kremlin. The report also suggests that the crypto funds are being used to fund Russia’s military interests and war efforts in Ukraine.
In February of this year, the US government sanctioned the crypto wallets reportedly belonging to two Russian nationals linked to the ransomware group LockBit.
According to a press release at the time, the wallets of Ivan Gennadievich Kondratiev and Artur Sungatov were blocked in the United States after LockBit attacked the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China’s (ICBC) U.S. broker-dealer, impacting the settlement of billions of dollars worth of assets.