According to the Chainalysis ‘2025 Crypto Crime Report, Darknet Market (DNM) vendors are adapting money laundering tactics. Centralized exchange (CEXS) remains the dominant cash-out method, but a significant shift is directed towards distributed finance (DEFI) protocols.
In 2024, Defi played an increasing role in storing, transferring and obfusizing illegal crypto revenues.
Darknet Market Vendors Rely on Defi
The increase in use of Defi occurs amid strict regulations on centralized exchange. Knowing the stricter customer (KYC) and Money Laundering Anti-Money Laundering (AML) countermeasures, illegal actors face major challenges when trying to cash out. Additionally, law enforcement agencies around the world have stepped up their efforts, seized assets and disrupt major money laundering networks.
In response, DarkNet market vendors are increasingly transforming their financial activities into a decentralized platform.
“Last year, DNM vendors sent Defi a much higher portion of their funds than they have done historically,” the report read.
When it comes to vendor behavior, change is primarily controlled by wholesale vendors. Meanwhile, small-scale retail vendors hold more illegal income in their personal wallets and are delaying conversions to Fiat to avoid detection.

Darknet Market Vendors Fund Distribution. Source: Chain Analysis
It is worth noting that the shift is not quarantined in the darknet market. Fraudulent funds are also increasingly moving through decentralized protocols.
“However, as more blockchain scams such as Ethereum, Tron and Solana grow, so is the use of the Defi protocol,” the report states.
Defi adoption among DarkNet vendors is growing, but has not replaced intensive exchanges as the main washing method. However, the trend is clear. The tenuous actor is expanding his strategy and is forced to evolve his tracking methods to executives and keep pace with increasingly sophisticated laundry techniques.
Another interesting trend is also the transition of assets used. DarkNet market operators and vendors have moved to Monero (XMR) as the cryptocurrency of choice to improve law enforcement’s ability to track Bitcoin (BTC) transactions.
“As international authorities have disrupted DNMs in many sizes over the past few years, cybercriminals and drug dealers have learned firsthand the consequences of running a DNM that accepts BTC given the inherent transparency of the currency. Many operators have moved to accept Monero (XMR) alone.”
Unlike BTC, which relies on transparent public ledgers, Monero offers built-in privacy features such as ring signatures, stealth addresses, and sensitive transactions, making it nearly impossible to track sender and recipient identities.
The report also revealed that inflows into the darknet market and fraudulent stores declined in 2024 despite a record year in overall revenues for crypto crime. Total revenue in the darknet market fell from $2.3 billion in 2023 to $2 billion in 2024.
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