Chainalysis, a blockchain analytics company, has traced USD 2.8 billion in Bitcoin being sent by criminals to crypto exchanges in 2019.
Chainalysis noted that 27.5% of that amount was going to Binance and 24.7% going to Huobi. On the two exchanges, a small group of accounts that received more than USD 100 billion worth of BTC in 2019 took in most of the illicit funds, Chainalysis found. 75% of the total amount received on Huobi and Binance went to 810 of the highest-receiving accounts.
According to the company, these large accounts likely belong to over-the-counter (OTC) brokers that ‘are typically associated with an exchange but operate independently’, Yahoo Finance wrote. Although both crypto exchanges have Know-Your-Customer (KYC) procedures in place, such requirements are lower for OTC desks.
In a list of 100 major 100 OTC brokers that Chainalysis believes to provide money laundering services, 70 of them are on Huobi. The 100 brokers together could account for as much as 1% of all Bitcoin activity in a given month, per the report.
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