Criminal Funds Flowed Through Major Crypto Exchanges like Binance and OKX
A detailed investigation reveals how illicit actors utilize major cryptocurrency platforms to move funds quietly.
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) conducted the Coin Laundry investigation, which revealed that significant amounts of illicit funds were transferred through prominent cryptocurrency exchanges, including Binance, OKX, Coinbase, Kraken, Bybit, and Kucoin, forming a global shadow economy profiting from criminal proceeds.
This extensive project, lasting ten months and involving 37 media outlets across 35 countries, collected numerous wallet addresses tied to scams, theft, sanctions violations, and other criminal activities, tracing tens of thousands of transactions on public blockchains.
Illicit Financial Movements on Major Exchanges
The investigation discovered that money launderers associated with drug trafficking, Southeast Asian scam organizations, and North Korean hacker groups routinely utilized these leading exchanges to transfer funds. An alarming discovery highlighted that the Huione Group, a Cambodian financial institution labeled as a “primary money laundering concern” by US authorities, redirected approximately $1 million in USDT daily to Binance accounts as recently as July 2025, contributing to over $408 million in overall transfers from July 2024 to July 2025.
These transactions persisted even when Binance operated under two court-appointed supervisors due to a plea deal from November 2023 for breaching US anti-money laundering legislation that mandated the firm pay $4.3 billion. Additionally, the investigation found that more than $226 million flowed into OKX from Huione in the five months following OKX’s guilty plea in the US in February 2025 for running an unlicensed money transmission service with penalties exceeding $504 million.
According to ICIJ, these transactions continued despite Huione being identified as a significant laundering concern. The investigation also analyzed how cash desks and courier services in cities like Hong Kong, Toronto, London, and Istanbul enable users to withdraw substantial amounts of cryptocurrency anonymously, circumventing regulatory scrutiny.
Moreover, the report documented how scam victims from twelve different countries tracked their stolen funds through these major platforms. To illustrate the vast scale of criminal operations leveraging cryptocurrency infrastructure, the investigation details a scheme led by Vladimir Okhotnikov, who allegedly defrauded investors of at least $340 million between 2020 and 2022 through a manipulated investment platform and maintained such schemes from Dubai.
Additional Information
In contrast to the enhanced transparency provided by blockchain records, ICIJ noted that criminals employ anonymous wallets and techniques such as “swappers” to obscure trails, presenting significant tracking hurdles for compliance teams at exchanges. Globally, regulators have imposed fines and penalties totaling at least $5.8 billion on crypto platforms, however, oversight remains inconsistent despite US authorities estimating crypto-related losses at $9.3 billion in 2024.
Related Articles:
