On the Dark Side of the Coin: Characterizing Bitcoin use for Illicit Activities

Hampus Rosenquist, David Hasselquist, Martin Arlitt, Niklas Carlsson

Paper: Hampus Rosenquist, David Hasselquist, Martin Arlitt, Niklas Carlsson, On the Dark Side of the Coin: Characterizing Bitcoin use for Illicit Activities, Proc. Passive and Active Measurement Conference (PAM), Mar. 2024. (pdf)

Abstract: Bitcoin's decentralized nature enables reasonably anonymous exchange of money outside of the authorities' control. This has led to Bitcoin being popular for various illegal activities, including scams, ransomware attacks, money laundering, black markets, etc. In this paper, we characterize this landscape, providing insights into similarities and differences in the use of Bitcoin for such activities. Our analysis and the derived insights contribute to the understanding of Bitcoin transactions associated with illegal activities through three main aspects. First, our study offers a comprehensive characterization of money flows to and from Bitcoin addresses linked to different abuse categories, revealing variations in flow patterns and success rates. Second, our temporal analysis captures long-term trends and weekly patterns across categories. Finally, our analysis of outflow from reported addresses uncovers differences in graph properties and flow patterns among illicit addresses and between abuse categories. These findings provide valuable insights into the distribution, temporal dynamics, and interconnections within various categories of Bitcoin transactions related to illicit activities. The increased understanding of the diverse landscape of Bitcoin transactions related to illegal activities and the insights gained from this study offer important empirical guidance for informed decision-making and policy development in the ongoing effort to address the challenges presented by illicit activities within the cryptocurrency space.

Dataset(s)

The following description is under construction (but expect to use a crietria/method along the following lines) ...

To help build upon our work, we will make available datasets to other researchers but ask that you please email niklas.carlsson@liu.se with Subject: "Request for PAM 2024 dataset by [insert your university / research institute here]" from a valid email account from that university / research institute. In the email, also explain who you are and what you plan to do with the dataset (at a high level). We intend to only share the data with other resaarchers and expect that the data is responsibly used for research purposes.

Citation format

When citing our dataset or work, please cite the conference version of the paper:

Hampus Rosenquist, David Hasselquist, Martin Arlitt, Niklas Carlsson, On the Dark Side of the Coin: Characterizing Bitcoin use for Illicit Activities, Proc. Passive and Active Measurement Conference (PAM), Mar. 2024. (pdf)