In a recent report named “NFT and Money Laundering Financial Crimes, Market Manipulation, Fraud & Risk Sanctions in Tokens that cannot be weakened” by Elliptic, a blockchain analysis company based in London analyzes that 17 million Ethereum transactions between Q4 2017 and Q1 2022 related to illegal activities and licenses. This report added that 22 NFT markets, four NFT -based games or metaverse platforms and two NFT swap services were investigated.The same report further notes that nearly $ 8.1 million identified illegal funds flowing to NFT services, almost all of them came from theft, fraud, phishing, or Ponzi scheme.
How did NFT money laundering occur?
Purushottam Anand, the founder of Legal Crypto shows that NFT is generally no more suitable for washing compared to other banking /finance channels or even physical arts such as paintings. “All transactions related to NFT can be tracked and recorded in the blockchain. However, NFT is a new form of asset and considers general volatility in the crypto space, there is no objective and definite assessment method for NFT.
Uncertainty in this assessment provides a place to multiply for Certain individuals/groups to use NFT to wash money laundering, “he said.Elips reports further noted that more than 60,000 Ethereum wallets interact with smart contracts from the top 10 NFT projects with trading volumes to exemplify the above trends. “Wallet with a high percentage of illegal funds tends to send minimal funds to the NFT contract. Ethereum Wallet from the top NFT project is chosen because they show assets with the highest scores that make them attract to criminals who want to justify their funds,” the report said.
Especially In the Crypto 2022
crime report, the Blockchain Chainalysis data company highlighted money laundering activities in the Crypto market, because it quoted that there had been a surge of almost 30 percent between 2020 and 2021
How to purchase authentic NFTs?
NFT collectors may require background research before investing. “For NFT collectors, it is important to conduct comprehensive research before buying NFT. They can examine social media and community channels of NFT collections, trade with trustworthy NFT platforms, and analyze agreement carefully,” said Vijay Pravin Maharajan, founder & CEO, Bitscrunch accurately .
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