The countries led by the sanctions of the United States government have increased in the activity of illegal cryptography, receiving almost $ 16 billion in digital assets last year, about 39% of illicit tokens transactions, according to a report by the Chain of the chain published Wednesday.
2024 was a year in which those nations, especially Iran, rose on people in the activity related to the sanctions, said the report of the cryptoanitic firm.
“As Western restrictions harden, sanctioned nations are resorting to alternative cryptocurrencies and financial systems to maintain commercial and access capital,” according to the report, which cited Russian and Iranian financial transactions with commercial partners such as China and India, using payment mechanisms that do not trust US dollars.
“While the use of cryptocurrencies in sanctioned jurisdictions may be associated with illicit finance controlled by the State, it also represents an important financial life line for common citizens who face economic difficulties under restrictive regimes,” the report said.
The Office of Foreign Treasury Assets Control of the United States, or ofac, is the government’s arm that establishes sanctions, and last year issued 13 that included cryptographic directions. That was less the previous year, but still. Now that President Donald Trump took over the Executive Branch and has installed Scott Besent at the top of the Treasury, the Pro-Crypto administration can adopt a different approach to digital assets.
The Tornado Cash cryptographic mixing platform had been attacked by the US authorities in 2023, but the popular service could still handle hundreds of millions of dollars in cryptographic transactions per month in 2024, according to the report, although it has not returned to its level prior to its prior level to the sanction.
These services are criticized for their use in the washing of stolen funds or in the sanctions of evading, and are difficult to close because they operate through intelligent contracts in a decentralized block chain. Users who promoted stolen funds represented an increase in the use of Cash Tornado in 2024, so it amounts to more than 24% of their total entries, according to Chainysis.
Tornado Cash has come to represent the legal struggle of the industry with the United States government for the user’s anonymity and if developers must be responsible for what they believe, and a Federal Court of Appeals of the United States rejected the original sanctions In November.
The chain chain dedicated a lot of attention to Iran in its latest report.
“Iran’s government maintains extensive control over the country’s financial system, including cryptocurrency infrastructure,” the document said. “For many Iranians, cryptocurrency represents an alternative financial system, and the growing use of Iranian encryption exchanges suggests that more individuals and institutions are resorting to cryptography to safeguard wealth and avoid financial restrictions.”
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