The narrative that Bitcoin is the currency of choice for criminals is looking increasingly outdated. River, the Bitcoin-centric financial services company, posted on May 31 that criminals now prefer stablecoins over Bitcoin, a claim backed by data from blockchain analytics firms that paints a picture of a dramatic reversal in how digital assets are used for illicit purposes.
Bitcoin’s share of illicit transaction volume has cratered from around 70% in 2020 to approximately 7% by 2025, according to Chainalysis data. In that same period, stablecoins surged to account for roughly 84% of illicit transaction volumes.
Stablecoins like USDT solve the volatility problem neatly. They’re pegged to the US dollar, meaning a million dollars in USDT today is still worth roughly a million dollars tomorrow. Scams and fraud, which require stable pricing to operate reliably, have become heavily concentrated in stablecoin transactions. Sanctioned entities have gravitated toward stablecoins for the same stability reasons.
Bitcoin still maintains a presence in ransomware payments and darknet marketplace transactions, where established infrastructure and relative anonymity tools built around Bitcoin still give it an edge.
