Who stole the bitcoin?

In August, 2016, a hacker stole 119,754 bitcoin from a cryptocurrency exchange called Bitfinex. On Tuesday, in Manhattan, a young married couple, Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan , appeared in federal court, charged with attempting to launder the proceeds of that crime.

In fact, when you look at the number of crypto transactions that occur each day and how many of them are fraudulent, crypto crime is actually falling as a proportion of crypto activity overall . Of 15.8 trillion in total transactions in 2021, just 0.15% were illicit.

While cryptocurrencies have a reputation for being anonymous, all transactions are recorded on a permanent, public ledger. Criminals launder money to prevent authorities from tracing the source of illicit funds . However, if they make one mistake along the way, their entire scheme can be undone.

Follow our live coverage of the crypto market But the main cause of the slump appears to be a plunge in the stock market amid concerns of a potential hike in interest rates by the US Federal Reserve .