• Over $600 million in illicit crypto flows were traced through exchanges like Binance and OKX.
• Cash-out services and anonymous wallets are increasingly used to launder cryptocurrency.
• Despite billions in penalties, cryptocurrency-related crimes in the U.S. surged by 67% in 2024.

A global investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has uncovered major patterns of illicit cryptocurrency activity. The investigation, dubbed The Coin Laundry, reveals how criminals move large sums of crypto across exchanges, brokers, and cash-out services, creating an increasingly difficult landscape for regulators to monitor. Despite enforcement actions and penalties, illicit flows continue unabated, highlighting significant vulnerabilities in the crypto ecosystem.

Flows of Illicit Funds Across Major Platforms

ICIJ’s investigation has traced over $600 million in illicit funds routed through major cryptocurrency exchanges, including Binance and OKX. One of the most prominent cases involves Huione Group, a Cambodian financial institution flagged by the U.S. Treasury as a “primary money laundering concern” in May 2025. 

Despite this, Huione continued to route substantial amounts of Tether (USDT) through Binance and OKX accounts. From July 2024 to July 2025, more than $408 million moved from Huione to Binance, with daily transfers reaching up to $1 million in July 2025, during a period when Binance was under court-appointed monitors for previous anti-money laundering violations.

OKX, which faced similar legal actions, also saw over $226 million flow into customer accounts from Huione between February and July 2025. The ongoing movement of illicit funds raises concerns about the effectiveness of oversight, even when exchanges face legal consequences.

The Role of Cash-Out Services and Anonymous Wallets

The investigation has shed light on the situation and the development of cash desks and courier services being used as the means through which the laundering of cryptocurrency is being done. Tokyo, Hong Kong, Toronto, and London are just some of the cities where these unregulated platforms conspired to help criminals turn a huge number of digital currencies into cash almost without any oversight. Such a shady system is mainly outside the regulators’ and law enforcement’s reach, thus it gets really complicated to track the illicit funds.

Besides that, swappers, which are software that enables users to perform anonymous cryptocurrency exchanges, have hindered law enforcement efforts to trace these transactions in real time even more. The growing adoption of privacy tools in the crypto industry has made it much harder for authorities to keep up with the ever-evolving criminal networks.

Despite a mounting number of penalties against crypto exchanges, including more than $5.8 billion in fines worldwide, the crypto sector remains a fertile ground for illicit activity. In the U.S., cryptocurrency-related crimes cost consumers $9.3 billion in 2024 alone, a 67% increase from the previous year. This reflects the broader issue of crypto’s unregulated nature and the lack of coordinated enforcement across borders.