Europol: Bitcoin remains the most popular cryptocurrency among cybercriminals

Bitcoin is still the preferred cryptocurrency for cybercriminals, Europol stated in the annual report “Assessing the threats of organized crime on the Internet” (IOCTA 2019).

“Although we previously reported a slight shift towards more private cryptocurrencies such as Monero, bitcoin is still the currency of choice for both legal and criminal use,” the organization said.

In previous IOCTA reports, the organization pointed to the growing popularity of altcoins such as Zcash, Monero, and Ethereum among cybercriminals.

This year, Monero was the only altcoin mentioned by the EU police organization in a report. It notes that the use of the coin mainly relates to darknet markets that accept or trade Monero.

Europol emphasized that Monero was widely used for hidden mining, the distribution of which has been declining throughout the current year. The latter is partially due to the termination of the Coinhive browser mining service in March, the organization said.

Recall, it was previously reported that the volume of bitcoin transactions in the darknet for 2019 may exceed $ 1 billion.

Subscribe to BlockchainJournal news on Facebook !