ICIJ | A multinational investigation exposes how crypto exchanges profit from scams, theft, and crimes that financially ruin victims.

“The Coin Laundry” investigations expose how crypto businesses have empowered — and benefit from — a shadow economy based on profits from crime. The International Consortium of Independent Journalists investigations include:

Cryptocurrency: Crypto giants moved billions linked to money launderers, drug traffickers and North Korean hackers
Financial Secrecy: From Dubai to Toronto, inside the crypto-to-cash storefronts fueling money laundering’s new frontier
Cryptocurrency: The Russian crypto guru’s Hollywood gambit
Explainer: From trading bans to total embrace, a global guide to crypto regulation
About the Investigation

“It’s more devastating than I can even put a word on [it]. I have spoken to people in their 80s who are preparing to file bankruptcy.” — Alona Katz, Chief, Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, Virtual Currency Unit

Crypto exchanges handle billions of dollars in legitimate transactions every day. Exchanges are online marketplaces where people can convert traditional money into Bitcoin, Ether, and other digital currencies. Like traditional banks, they allow customers to set up accounts, store funds, and make payments. Unlike bank deposits, crypto funds are not federally insured.

Proponents emphasize that digital currency is easier to monitor than traditional currency because transactions are recorded on a blockchain. Complex transactions can pass through multiple anonymous digital wallets. And software exists to allow users to switch between cryptocurrencies without identity checks.

Exchanges provide a quick way to convert ill-gotten cryptocurrencies into standard currency. Regulators and law enforcement have tried to push the companies to implement anti-money laundering safeguards. But doing so could affect their revenue, which comes from transaction fees.

“If they kick criminal actors off the platform, then that’s a big revenue source that they lose, so they have an incentive to allow this activity to continue.” — John Griffin, University of Texas at Austin

What the Investigations Found

ICIJ and media partners in 35 countries gathered and analyzed hundreds of crypto wallet addresses and tens of thousands of transactions. The report reveals financial flows associated with money laundering for scam center operators, drug traffickers, hackers, and other criminals.

Journalists interviewed scam victims in 12 countries and traced their transactions to some of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, including Binance and OKX. They discovered that:

Binance received hundreds of millions of dollars from Huione Group — a known “primary money-laundering concern” — while under supervision as part of a plea deal for violating U.S. anti-money laundering laws.
It’s not just the big exchanges. With even less oversight, “cash desks” and courier services allow people to convert large sums of cryptocurrency into traditional currency.
Authorities around the world have levied at least $5.8 billion in fines, penalties, and settlements against cryptocurrency exchanges.

In the U.S. alone, the FBI estimates Americans lost $9.3 billion to crypto crimes in 2024, a 67% increase from 2023. For context, that’s about half the amount criminal financier Bernie Madoff collected from investors over 40 years in a Ponzi scheme.

Governments are challenged to keep pace with the evolution of cryptocurrency-related crime. The reporting outlines how criminals are exploiting decentralized financial systems such as crypto.

Full report: The Coin Laundry Investigation