$51 Billion Crypto Crime Surge Fueled by Stablecoin Adoption

The picture of the crypto criminal as a lone wolf hacker, working in isolation in his or her basement, is increasingly misleading.

Crypto Crime Volumes to Hit $51B Aided by Stablecoin Adoption

The image of the crypto criminal as a lone wolf hacker, toiling away in his or her basement, is becoming increasingly inaccurate. By 2024, illicit cryptocurrency volumes are set to cross $51 billion. But what’s more important is the significance of the quantum. It’s the quality of how these illegal activities are changing.

Today’s crypto criminals have executives, managers, supervisors, and call centers. They have fine-tuned their B2B products, and some subgroups are even focusing on what the technology sector at large knows well: ‘crime as a service.’

In Chainalysis’s latest report on the state of digital currency criminality, they have transitioned from a funding source for ideologically motivated hackers—who cypherpunks would’ve randomly robbed to seem more and more like some midsize Fortune 500 company’s org chart.

Take Huione Guarantee — an Asian criminal underpin that has dealt with more than $70B in transactions since 2021. Their business model wouldn’t look out of place in a Silicon Valley pitch deck. They act as the enabling infrastructure for several kinds of crime (including scams around disguised meat sales), and money laundering, getting a slice of each transaction. It’s a minimalist hosting service for the criminal element with helpdesk and API specification thrown into the bargain.

The focus on stablecoins as the currency of choice for criminals (now accounts for 63% of the overall volume) further strengthens this corporate shift. Monero, actively used in darknet markets like the ‘Wall Street Market’ and others is not considered here (it is, a bit spuriously, based on its specifications). But criminal companies, like legal companies, like a stable unit of account for their activities. While the double-barreled volatility of Bitcoin might be a bonus for jokey FOMO-chasers, it’s a literal pain in the head for Evil Type 2 accountants who need a consensus for operational costs.

7X Gains Possible for XRP, Warns Bitcoin Maxi

An influential Bitcoin Maxi has switched to the bull side regarding XRP while Forking out a price target of $24 for the embattled token – But it’s still not a hold for the long haul.

Jeremie promotes his view in a tweet today that XRP could peak in the range of $20-$24 in this cycle. This newfound optimism arises as XRP trades at a seven-year high of $3+ and outperforms other well-known cryptocurrencies.

In this impressive trend, Jeremie went on to share his ideas that XRP will need to climb much higher in 2025, with a target of $24 quite obtainable. Of course, this change in thinking occurred after Jeremie mentioned XRP as a “stablecoin.” He is using the high procurement principle, that XRP value will fall to zero in preceding years. However, as XRP continues to rise to the highest level in its history, the critics have begun to change their earlier disposition.

Other established market analysts have recently come out to laud the XRP token such as the popular trader Peter Brandt and Raoul Pal who is the CEO of Real Vision. Brandt has gone further in his forecast to predict that XRP could spend this cycle at over half a trillion dollars in market capitalization if only the price of the cryptocurrency were to surpass $8 per unit. At the moment, the XRP is trading at $3.13. Getting to $24 as Jeremie estimates, would mean an eight-fold increase or a 667 percent advance for the holders at the current time.

While hyped up on bullish price forecasts regarding XRP, Jeremie has not fully shed off his skepticism. When expressing his thoughts on Bitcoin and XRP in his most recent comments, he felt the need to provide a caveat: he does not regard XRP as an investment opportunity. Instead, he posts that the market actors see XRP only as a means to make money through trading the Ripple token.