2026-03-06 12:00:23

There is a narrative circulating outside the crypto sector that crypto is the primary means of laundering money.

The total amount of money laundered worldwide is estimated at $800B to $2T annually, or 2% to 5% of global GDP.
And the vast majority of this does not go through crypto. The banking sector bears 69% of the total amount of fines for money laundering, according to Shufti - which in itself clearly illustrates who the main channel really is.
In 2023, banks spent $181B on AML programs, but despite this, only about 1% of the total amount of dirty money is intercepted each year.
Crypto looks modest in this comparison. In 2024, approximately $40B was laundered through crypto, which is less than 0.2% of all crypto transactions. It is a significant amount, but it is incomparable to the scale of banking flows.

This page may contain third-party content, which is provided for information purposes only (not representations/warranties) and should not be considered as an endorsement of its views by Gate, nor as financial or professional advice. See Disclaimer for details.

2 Likes