Bitcoin Is Making a Comeback on Darknet Platforms
Date: 2025-04-01 Author: Gabriel Deangelo Categories: CRYPTO PAYMENTS
The decline in availability and liquidity of privacy coins like Monero (XMR) has contributed to the rise of Bitcoin among criminals. Before XMR was delisted, it was widely used by Western darknet markets as a primary payment method or was used in parallel with Bitcoin. However, after Monero was delisted from platforms like OKX and Binance, transaction volumes have dropped significantly.
According to BitInfoCharts, the number of daily Monero transactions has almost halved over the past year.
Despite Bitcoin’s return to darknet platforms, illicit transactions still make up only a small portion of overall cryptocurrency activity. According to Chainalysis, only 0.14% of all transactions, equivalent to about $50 billion, are related to illegal activities.
Eric Jardine also noted that law enforcement agencies focus their efforts on darknet markets primarily because of their scale and close connection to the drug trade.
Earlier, on March 4, the US Treasury Department, through the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), added 44 Bitcoin and five Monero addresses associated with the closed darknet marketplace Nemesis Market to the sanctions list. This platform was used, in particular, to distribute prohibited substances.
