As per a recent Elliptic analysis, the prominent meme cryptocurrency Dogecoin has been increasingly linked to a variety of illegal activities including terrorism financing, Ponzi scams, and sexual abuse of children.
Dogecoin’s link with Elon Musk and the cuddly allure of its Shiba Inu mascot may gain it a considerable market cap. However, it did not stop them from being a target by criminal operators in the most severe sorts of crime.
Despite its original notoriety as a prank, the asset was able to acquire substantial popularity as a payment mechanism. Along with them are the things that the Ukrainian government use to make contributions to its battle against the Russian invasion. Dogecoin is now one of the top ten biggest crypto assets in terms of market value.
According to the blockchain analytics firm’s study, the meme coin of Elon Musk has become a favorite alternative for nefarious actors. They will be using this to facilitate deals in the millions.
The great bulk of this activity comprises deception, fraud, as well as Ponzi schemes. Moreover, it also contains the most heinous sorts of crime, such as terrorist financing and child sexual abuse material dealers.
In July 2021, Israel’s National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing files a confiscation order against 84 cryptocurrency domains. They are a suspect that links to the Hamas terrorist organization. One of those accounts contains $40,235 worth of Dogecoin.
Furthermore, the analytics firm observes that a small but rising percentage of CSAM suppliers on the darknet and elsewhere now accept Bitcoin. Elliptics was able to discover just $3000 in Dogecoin, which is a modest sum. However, it warns that there is a rising enthusiasm for unscrupulous actors to adopt a wide spectrum of crypto assets to escape detection.
Dogecoin Acceptance on Darknets
Because of Dogecoin’s rising popularity, criminals are already taking awareness. Elliptic discover millions of dollars in Dogecoin activities linked to illegal behavior. This is in contrast to its usefulness as a form of payment for lawful products and services.
Dogecoin is also legal in several darknet shops and malware operations. Elliptic discovers that some darknet sites, such as Just-Kill, currently take Dogecoin and some don’t.
Aside from terrorists, far-right extremist organizations tend to be keen on cryptocurrencies such as Dogecoin. Whenever these organizations, far-right blogs, news sites, and video-sharing platforms are unable to acquire funding through standard means, they turn to Dogecoin.
Another prominent organization is Infowars. The far-right globalism-battling news portal collects almost $1,700 in Dogecoin. This finding is comparable to the Financial Action Task Force’s discoveries last year concerning far-right organizations. These are groups that are employing cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin as well as privacy tokens.
Unfortunately, Ponzi schemes, extortion, and fraud appear to be the largest criminal use of Dogecoin. Elliptic alleges to discover over 50 examples in which crooks pay out millions of dollars in Dogecoin. Last year, there was a robbery of $119 million in Dogecoin relating to the Turkish Ponzi operation. The Chinese authorities also confiscates over $20M DOGE in the $6B PlusToken Ponzi scam in 2020.
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