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Elliptic’s latest analysis shows that cross-chain swaps have channeled $21.8 billion in illicit or high-risk cryptocurrency over the last two years—a 211% jump from $7 billion in 2023. Increasingly sophisticated chain-hopping across bridges, DEXs and coin swap services reveals how criminals exploit a multichain ecosystem to launder funds.
Key Takeaways
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Cross-chain swaps moved $21.8 billion in illicit or high-risk funds, up 211% since 2023.
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North Korea–linked activity accounts for roughly 12% of these flows.
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Structured and multi-hop chain-hopping techniques split and shift assets across multiple blockchains.
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DEXs, bridges and coin swap services form core laundering infrastructure.
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Blockchain analytics tools are adapting with automated cross-chain tracing.
Evolution Of Cross-Chain Laundering
A decade ago, laundering chiefly involved mixers and single-chain DEX trades on Bitcoin or Ethereum. Today’s multichain environment has multiplied opportunities for obfuscation:
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Structured Chain-Hopping: Splitting large sums and distributing them simultaneously across several networks.
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Multi-Hop Chain-Hopping: Repeatedly moving assets from one blockchain to another to sever transaction trails.
Both techniques incur high fees by design, deterring casual users and hampering investigators.
Bridges As Laundering Highways
Blockchain bridges now serve as laundering superhighways:
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Ordinary bridge transactions mirror legitimate cross-chain trades, concealing illicit patterns.
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High-stakes operations, such as a $75 million North Korea–linked hack, used five bridges in rapid succession (Bitcoin → Ethereum → Arbitrum → Base → Tron).
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Even smaller frauds—like a £200,000 UK scam—employ chain-hopping across 90 assets to fund online gambling.
DeFi Entry Points
Decentralized exchanges (DEXs) remain critical entry points into laundering cycles:
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Low-liquidity tokens on DeFi platforms are swapped for stablecoins (USDT, USDC) without KYC hurdles.
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Attackers exploit DEX aggregators and AMMs to route transactions through obscure pairs, reducing slippage and evading anti-money laundering alarms.
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The May 2025 Cetus exploit saw $200 million drained and routed via USDT → USDC swaps, then bridged to Ethereum and converted to ETH to avoid freezing by stablecoin issuers.
Underground Coin Swap Services
Coin swap platforms function like opaque currency exchangers:
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No registration or AML checks; popular on darknet forums and Telegram channels.
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Many advertise acceptance of “dirty BTC” and promise non-cooperation with law enforcement.
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Around 25% of flows through these services fund unlicensed online gambling, pig-butchering scams and narcotics trafficking.
Fighting Back With Blockchain Analytics
Despite growing complexity, analytics firms are enhancing cross-chain visibility:
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Automated tracing tools (Elliptic Investigator, Chainalysis Storyline, TRM Forensics) map multi-chain flows in minutes.
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Centralized stablecoin issuers retain freeze powers for flagged assets.
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Analysts can now reconstruct five-hop laundering sequences with a few clicks, significantly reducing investigator workload.
The cat-and-mouse between criminals and compliance tech is intensifying, but the infrastructure for tracking illicit crypto is steadily advancing.
Sources
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Crosschain swaps move $21B in illicit funds, up 200% in two years: Elliptic — TradingView News, TradingView.
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