Cryptocurrency criminals have laundered money by sending digital assets across blockchains, also called cross-chain bridges. This way they are able to bypass centralized service that can block and freeze transactions
Cryptocurrency criminals have laundered money by sending digital assets across blockchains, also called cross-chain bridges. This way they are able to bypass centralized service that can block and freeze transactions.
A new research posted by Elliptic revealed that one particular cross-chain bridge called RenBridge has been used to launder at least $540 million in crime-related crypto cash since 2020.
Elliptic says RenBridge was “an important facilitator” for Russia-linked ransomware gangs.
David Carlisle, Elliptic’s vice president of policy and regulatory affairs, said cross-chain bridges are “a bit of a blessing and a curse” at the moment. Like so many popular crypto tools, they help expand the market by giving people more ways to pay and transact. Cross-chain bridges are notably vital to the development of the decentralized finance, or DeFi, space, which is crypto’s alternative to the banking system.
