Exposing a grim reality within the crypto ecosystem, a recent study by Elliptic has revealed the prevalence of cybercrimes exploiting cross-chain bridges and coin swap services. These sophisticated techniques have reportedly been used to cleanse approximately $7 billion classified as illicit or high-risk funds. Among the notorious cybercriminal gangs, the Lazarus Group, assumed to be driven by North Korea, is held accountable for a substantial $900 million of cross-chain fraudulent activities.
Abuse of Decentralized Exchanges and Cross-Chain Mechanisms
From July 2022 up until July 2023, a staggering $7 billion worth of illicit or high-risk funds were reportedly laundered leveraging cross-chain and cross-asset services. With these figures, blockchain analytics firm Elliptic’s forecasts were surpassed – previously, the firm had estimated the total value of laundered crypto assets via these means to only touch $6.5 billion by the end of 2023.
In a public statement from October 5, the firm alerted that a sharp increase in such fraudulent activities was already recorded, with this year's figure significantly exceeding last year's total of $4.1 billion. In the words of Tom Robinson, the co-founder and key scientist at Elliptic, "We witnessed a surge in cross-chain crime after releasing our Holistic blockchain analytics abilities last year. These nefarious activities usually exploit decentralized exchanges, cross-chain bridges, and coin Swap services, indicating an alarming trend."
Cyber Fraudsters Expand their Reach
Following the published statement, the infamous Lazarus Group, which allegedly operates under North Korean backing, is said to be responsible for $900 million of cross-chain fraudulent transactions. Furthermore, this criminal organization reportedly maintains more than 80 distinct assets across over 26 different blockchains. Several high-profile hacking incidents attributed to the group have been highlighted by Bitcoin.com News in recent times, with one particular heist involving the theft of $200 million in digital assets.
The Art of Money Laundering in Blockchain
Elliptic further highlighted a disturbing trend involving cybercriminals, including the Lazarus Group, employing increasingly complex cross-chain tactics to cover their tracks before exchanging the cryptos for cash. These crafty maneuvers complicate tracking efforts and include techniques such as derivatives trading and limit orders – a sharp deviation from earlier simplistic techniques.
Investigating and understanding this chilling landscape of crypto crime remains critical for all stakeholders. Such knowledge informs future actions that could potentially dwarf these nefarious activities and ultimately secure the broader crypto ecosystem.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Precious Metal IRA and How Can You Benefit From It?
A precious metal IRA allows you to diversify your retirement savings into gold, silver, platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium, osmium, and other rare metals. These rare metals are often called “precious” as they are very difficult to find and highly valuable. They make excellent investments for your money and help you protect your future from inflation and economic instability.
Precious metals are sometimes called “bullion.” Bullion is the physical metal.
Bullion can be bought via various channels, such as online retailers, large coin dealers and grocery stores.
An IRA for precious metals allows you to directly invest in bullion instead of purchasing stock shares. This ensures that you will receive dividends each and every year.
Precious metal IRAs are not like regular IRAs. They don't need paperwork and don't have to be renewed annually. Instead, you pay a small percentage tax on the gains. Additionally, you have access to your funds at no cost whenever you need them.
What are the benefits to having a gold IRA
The best way to invest money for retirement is by putting it into an Individual Retirement Account (IRA). It is tax-deferred until it's withdrawn. You can decide how much money you withdraw each year. There are many types and types of IRAs. Some are better suited for people who want to save for college expenses. Some are for investors who seek higher returns. Roth IRAs let individuals contribute after age 591/2 and pay tax on any earnings at retirement. However, once they begin withdrawing funds, these earnings are not taxed again. This type of account might be a good choice if your goal is to retire early.
The gold IRA allows you to invest in different asset classes, which is similar to other IRAs. Unlike a regular IRA where you pay taxes on gains, a gold IRA doesn't require you to worry about taxation while you wait to get them. This makes gold IRA accounts a great choice for those who want their money to be invested, not spent.
Another benefit of owning gold through an IRA is that you get to enjoy the convenience of automatic withdrawals. You won't have the hassle of making deposits each month. You could also set up direct debits to never miss a payment.
Finally, gold is one the most secure investment options available. Its value is stable because it's not tied with any one country. Even in times of economic turmoil gold prices tend to remain stable. Gold is a good option for protecting your savings from inflation.
Can the government take your gold?
Your gold is yours and the government cannot take it. You worked hard to earn it. It belongs to your. This rule may not apply to all cases. You could lose your gold if convicted of fraud against a federal government agency. Your precious metals can also be lost if you owe tax to the IRS. However, even if taxes are not paid, gold is still your property.
How much money should my Roth IRA be funded?
Roth IRAs are retirement accounts where you deposit your own money tax-free. The account cannot be withdrawn from until you are 59 1/2. If you decide to withdraw some of your contributions, you will need to follow certain rules. First, you cannot touch your principal (the original amount deposited). No matter how much money you contribute, you cannot take out more than was originally deposited to the account. If you decide to withdraw more money than what you contributed initially, you will need to pay taxes.
You cannot withhold your earnings from income taxes. When you withdraw, you will have to pay income tax. Let's assume that you contribute $5,000 each year to your Roth IRA. Let's say you earn $10,000 each year after contributing. You would owe $3,500 in federal income taxes on the earnings. That leaves you with only $6,500 left. You can only take out what you originally contributed.
The $4,000 you take out of your earnings would be subject to taxes. You'd still owe $1,500 in taxes. In addition, 50% of your earnings will be subject to tax again (half of 40%). So even though you received $7,000 in Roth IRA contributions, you only received $4,000.
There are two types if Roth IRAs, Roth and Traditional. Traditional IRAs allow you to deduct pretax contributions from your taxable income. To withdraw your retirement contribution balance plus interest, your traditional IRA is available to you. You have the option to withdraw any amount from a traditional IRA.
Roth IRAs won't let you deduct your contributions. Once you are retired, however, you may withdraw all of your contributions plus accrued interest. There is no minimum withdrawal amount, unlike traditional IRAs. You don’t have to wait for your turn 70 1/2 years before you can withdraw your contributions.
What does a gold IRA look like?
People who wish to invest in precious metals can use Gold Ira accounts as a tax-free investment vehicle.
You can buy physical gold bullion coins at any time. To invest in gold, you don't need to wait for retirement.
An IRA lets you keep your gold for life. Your gold assets will not be subjected tax upon your death.
Your heirs inherit your gold without paying capital gains taxes. Because your gold doesn't belong to the estate, it's not necessary to include it on your final estate plan.
First, an individual retirement account will be set up to allow you to open a golden IRA. Once you've done so, you'll be given an IRA custodian. This company acts as an intermediary between you and IRS.
Your gold IRA Custodian will manage the paperwork and submit all necessary forms to IRS. This includes filing annual reports.
Once your gold IRA is established, you can purchase gold bullion coins. Minimum deposit required is $1,000 You'll get a higher rate of interest if you deposit more.
When you withdraw your gold from your IRA, you'll pay taxes on it. If you take out the whole amount, you'll be subject to income taxes as well as a 10 percent penalty.
If you only take out a very small percentage of your income, you may not need to pay tax. However, there are some exceptions. There are some exceptions. For instance, if you take out 30% or more from your total IRA assets, federal income taxes will apply plus a 20 percent penalty.
You shouldn't take out more then 50% of your total IRA assets annually. You could end up with severe financial consequences.
How much gold do you need in your portfolio?
The amount of money you need to make depends on how much capital you are looking for. A small investment of $5k-10k would be a great option if you are looking to start small. You could then rent out desks and office space as your business grows. This will allow you to pay rent monthly, and not worry about it all at once. It's only one monthly payment.
It's also important to determine what type business you'll run. In my case, I am running a website creation company, so we charge clients around $1000-2000/month depending on what they order. This is why you should consider what you expect from each client if you're doing this kind of thing.
You won't get a monthly paycheck if you work freelance. This is because freelancers are paid. Therefore, you might only get paid one time every six months.
Before you can determine how much gold you'll need, you must decide what type of income you want.
I recommend starting with $1k-$2k of gold and growing from there.
Statistics
- If you take distributions before hitting 59.5, you'll owe a 10% penalty on the amount withdrawn. (lendedu.com)
- If you accidentally make an improper transaction, the IRS will disallow it and count it as a withdrawal, so you would owe income tax on the item's value and, if you are younger than 59 ½, an additional 10% early withdrawal penalty. (forbes.com)
- This is a 15% margin that has shown no stable direction of growth but fluctuates seemingly at random. (smartasset.com)
- Indeed, several financial advisers interviewed for this article suggest you invest 5 to 15 percent of your portfolio in gold, just in case. (aarp.org)
- Gold is considered a collectible, and profits from a sale are taxed at a maximum rate of 28 percent. (aarp.org)
External Links
law.cornell.edu
- 7 U.S. Code SS7 – Designation of boards for trade as contract markets
- 26 U.S. Code SS 408 – Individual retirement plans
cftc.gov
wsj.com
- Saddam Hussein's InvasionHelped Uncage a Bear In 90 – WSJ
- How do you keep your IRA Gold at Home? It's not legal – WSJ
finance.yahoo.com
How To
The best place to buy silver or gold online
To buy gold, you must first understand how it works. Precious metals like gold are similar to platinum. It's very rare and is used as money because of its durability and resistance to corrosion. It is very difficult to use and most people prefer to purchase jewelry made of it over actual bars of Gold.
Two types of gold coins are available today: the legal tender type and the bullion type. Legal tender coins are designed for circulation in a country. They often have denominations like $1 or $5 or $10.
Bullion coins are only minted to be used for investment purposes. Their value increases over time because of inflation.
They cannot be used in currency exchanges. For example, if a person buys $100 worth of gold, he/she gets 100 grams of gold with a value of $100. The buyer receives 1 gram of gold for every dollar spent.
Next, you need to find out where to buy gold. If you want to purchase gold directly from a dealer, then a few options are available. First, your local currency shop is a good place to start. You might also consider going through a reputable online seller like eBay. You may also be interested in buying gold through private sellers online.
Private sellers are individuals that offer gold at wholesale or retail prices. When selling gold through private sellers, you pay a commission fee of 10% to 15% per transaction. This means that you will get less back from a private seller than if you sell it through a coin shop or on eBay. This option can be a good choice for investing in gold because it allows you to control the price.
Another way to buy gold is by investing in physical gold. You can store physical gold much more easily than you can with paper certificates. However, it still needs to be safe. To ensure that your physical gold remains safe, you need to secure it in an impenetrable container such as a vault or safety deposit box.
If you are looking to purchase gold on your own, you have two options: a bank or an pawnshop. A bank will be able to provide you with a loan for the amount of money you want to invest in gold. Customers can borrow money from pawnshops to purchase items. Banks typically charge higher interest rates than pawn shops.
Finally, another way to buy gold is to simply ask someone else to do it! Selling gold is simple too. You can contact a company like GoldMoney.com to set up an account and receive payments right away.
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By: Terence Zimwara
Title: Navigating the Crypto Crime Wave: Cross-Chain Bridges and Coin Swap Services Exploited
Sourced From: news.bitcoin.com/cybercriminals-use-dexs-and-crypto-cross-chain-services-to-launder-7-billion-elliptic/
Published Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2023 11:30:09 +0000
