Chainalysis researchers concluded that the use of bitcoin on the darknet, including for the purchase of drugs, continues to grow.
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In a new report, the firm said that during the fourth quarter of last year, the volume of transactions with bitcoin on darknet markets amounted to $600 million.
The graph below shows an increase in darknet marketplace revenue. It is especially pronounced in 2019, after a slight decline a year earlier․
However, the share of bitcoin and altcoins in the revenue of such marketplaces is small and does not even amount to 1%.
The following graph shows that even though the share of bitcoin in operations on darknet markets is gradually growing (the orange line), BTC is much more actively used in legal activities․
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Chainalysis also emphasized that the activity of using bitcoin on the darknet is not particularly affected by the volatility of the cryptocurrency price.
Earlier, Chainalysis analysts came to the conclusion that the share of illegal coins in bitcoin mixers does not exceed 10%. Cryptocurrency holders most often resort to the services of such services for privacy reasons, and not in an attempt to hide illegal income.