Chinese-language money laundering networks have become a central conduit for illicit cryptocurrency activity, processing an estimated 20% of known on-chain laundering over the past five years and accelerating far faster than illicit financial flows tied to centralized exchanges, according to new analysis from Chainalysis. 

Chainalysis estimates the broader illicit on-chain money laundering ecosystem expanded from about $10 billion in 2020 to more than $82 billion in 2025, a jump it attributes to the growing liquidity and accessibility of crypto as well as a structural shift in who provides laundering services and how those services operate. 

Within that surge, Chinese-language money laundering networks (CMLNs) processed $16.1 billion in 2025, or roughly $44 million per day, across more than 1,799 active wallets, Chainalysis said in findings published Tuesday. 

“These money laundering networks operate openly across various platforms and demonstrate complex, multi-layered operations characterized by industrial-scale processing capacity, operational resilience, and technical sophistication,” the company said. 

The analysis argues that laundering is moving away from reliance on centralized exchanges, partly because exchanges can freeze funds. Since 2020, inflows to identified CMLNs grew 7,325 times faster than illicit inflows to centralized exchanges, according to the firm. 

Chainalysis says it has identified “behavioral fingerprints” for six service types that make up the ecosystem: running point brokers, money mules, OTCs, Black U services, gambling platforms, and money movement services that offer mixing and swapping of crypto assets.  

Collectively, “these operations involve thousands of vendors processing tens of billions of dollars,” the company said.

Read more at Chainalysis