$1B worth of bitcoin to be used for narcotics, child porn, and other crimes

It’s well-known that cryptocurrency is the preferred mode of transactions by criminals because of how difficult it is to track. This year, it is expected that as much as $1 billion of bitcoin transactions will be conducted in the dark web with the goal of purchasing illegal products and services.

The new data comes courtesy of Chainalysis, Bloomberg reports, and it indicates that as much as $515 million worth of bitcoin was already used to pay for illicit matters in the first half of the year.

Due to the fact that bitcoin’s price basically dropped like a rock last year, it saw a lower record of criminal use compared to the $827 million in 2017. In contrast, however, the crypto industry in the first half of 2019 is booming.

With this being the case, unless bitcoin hits another devastating snag and falls below the $6,500 mark once again, criminals are expected to keep using the currency for illegal transactions. The $1 billion figure is a stark reminder of the dark side of cryptocurrency. This is a side that the Financial Action Task Force and many others like it are trying to combat.

Of the dark web marketplaces that are notorious for illicit transactions, Hydra is the one that Chainalysis focused on most, Cryptovibes reports. It is here where criminals are spending the most amount of bitcoins in order to settle questionable purchases. It is worth noting that bitcoin is not the only cryptocurrency being used since others are also on the table.