Illicit Crypto Activity Hits Record $158 Billion in 2025, TRM Labs Report Finds

Jan 29, 2026

1 min read

Illicit Crypto Activity Hits Record $158 Billion in 2025, TRM Labs Report Finds — Unsplash - Morthy Jameson

Blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs' 2026 Crypto Crime Report reveals that illicit cryptocurrency activity reached an all-time high of $158 billion in 2025, a 145% increase from $64.5 billion in 2024, reversing a multi-year decline. The surge was driven primarily by Russian-linked sanctions evasion activity, particularly the ruble-pegged stablecoin A7A5, which alone processed more than $72 billion in volume.

Beyond A7A5, the A7 wallet cluster — a Kremlin-backed cross-border sanctions evasion platform — was linked to at least $39 billion in transactions, reflecting coordinated, state-aligned financial infrastructure. Sanctions-related activity grew over 400% year-on-year, with 95% of inflows to sanctioned entities arriving via stablecoins. Hacks and exploits caused $2.87 billion in losses across approximately 150 incidents — half attributable to the February Bybit breach alone — while TRM attributes $1.92 billion to North Korean actors, who increasingly rely on Chinese money laundering networks for off-ramping. Ari Redbord, TRM's global head of policy and former U.S. Treasury official, noted that A7A5 demonstrates how sanctioned state actors build specialised financial rails when mainstream channels are shut off. Stablecoin flows to sanctioned entities on KYC-compliant exchanges fell nearly 30%, but surged over 200% on decentralised and no-KYC services.

Despite the record absolute figures, illicit activity's proportional share continued to decline — representing just 1.2% of total on-chain volume (down from 1.3% in 2024 and 2.4% in 2023) — indicating the legitimate crypto ecosystem's growth outpaces illicit use, a finding consistent with Chainalysis' parallel estimate of $154 billion.

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