Child Sexual Abuse Material Providers Made Over $900K In Bitcoin

hainanalysis has published an analytic report on the use of cryptocurrency to the purchase of child sexual abuse material on the dark net, for the year of 2019.

The report states that $930,000 in crypto, specifically bitcoin has been used to buy CSAMs in just the span of a year.

Chainanalysis says that the said amount in BTC represents a very small fraction of all the crypto activity and the industry should be concerned about the usage of cryptocurrencies are being used for criminal activities and in deeply exploitative industries.

While cryptocurrencies may have become prevalent among criminal content providers due to their perceived pseudonymous properties, Chainalysis notes that the blockchain can in fact provide investigators with actionable data that sheds light on the profiles and activities of those involved.

Among the key patterns identified in the report are frequent low-value payments — typically between $10 and $50 in Bitcoin — sent between 11pm and 5am. While small payments account for the lion’s share of transactions, CSAM providers do draw a significant percentage of their revenue from much larger individual payments.

Other signs of illicit CSAM activity include cryptocurrency transactions that are tied to prepaid credit and debit cards, or those made repeatedly to one address (or group of addresses controlled by the same entity).

Crypto payments to known escort services or other adult services providers or the purchase of crypto tokens that target the adult industry specifically can provide law enforcement with further data points towards an analysis of the CSAM darknet sector.

*Chainanalysis is a blockchain-intelligence firm based out of New York.