Blockchain analytics company Elliptic revealed in a recent report that dogecoin has been gaining traction among criminals for illicit activities. The new report stated that dogecoin had been increasingly used for scams, Ponzi schemes, and fraud. Not just that, DOGE has been prevalent also for severe crimes like financing terrorism and child sex abuse.
Dogecoin gained popularity among investors and criminals alike
To back up the claims, the report quoted a seizure order from July 2021, which was carried out by Israel’s National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing. The order was against 84 addresses that were believed to have a connection with the Hamas militant group for terrorist activities. One of the seized wallets contained $40,235 worth of DOGE.
The analysis by Elliptic about the crypto assets used for payments tracked both darknet and clearnet, revealing that a small number of CSAM vendors accept the meme coin. Even though the numbers are not that high as compared to the prominent cryptocurrencies, $3,000 in payments shows the rising popularity and increased adoption even among criminals.
The more common crimes using dogecoin were the ones carried out by Ponzi schemes, scams, and thefts. Elliptic has identified over 50 cases of illicit activities linked to these crimes, making criminals millions in dogecoin. The report also highlighted an example of the Plus Token Ponzi scheme, which seized over $20 million in DOGE by the Chinese authorities.
Dogecoin has also been widely used by far-right extremists who have been cut off from mainstream financial services. These extremists have turned to DOGE and other cryptocurrencies for raising funds.
Originally developed as a joke, dogecoin gained popularity and gained the memecoin title among crypto enthusiasts. The memecoin has gained wide popularity among prominent firms and even the CEO of Elon Musk, who is an ardent supporter of dogecoin. Amidst everything, DOGE has ranked itself as the top tenth cryptocurrency with a fully diluted market cap of $8 billion.