Blockchain analysis firm Elliptical said On May 23, several Chinese companies selling precursors to the synthetic opioid fentanyl received millions in cryptocurrency.
Elliptic reported that its researchers have interacted with more than 90 companies in China that have offered to sell fentanyl precursors.
According to the analytics firm, 90% of these companies accepted cryptocurrency payments, while 17 companies were willing to supply fentanyl themselves.
Wallets received large amounts of crypto
Elliptic determined that cryptocurrency wallets owned by chemical vendors received over $27 million in crypto. That amount could purchase enough fentanyl precursors to create pills with a market value of $54 billion, he said.
Chemical suppliers have received payments on thousands of transactions, Elliptic said. He also noted that the number of transactions to these wallets had increased by 450% year over year and said that a fentanyl trafficker had paid tens of thousands of dollars.
Providers have widely accepted Bitcoin (BTC) and Tether (USDT), Elliptic reported. Elliptic’s analysis indicates that payments sent to precursor vendor addresses have seen a 450% year-over-year increase.
Among the addresses shared by precursor providers analyzed by Elliptic, Bitcoin (BTC) payments totaled 66% of total transactions, Tether (USDT) payments on the Tron blockchain accounted for 21%, and USDT payments on the Ethereum blockchain accounted for 13% of total transactions. Other cryptocurrencies accounted for only 1% of total transactions.
Elliptic noted that some companies supply other chemicals, many of which can be used to create other synthetic opioids, methamphetamine and amphetamine.
The analytics company notified the exchanges of the illegal activity and flagged the cryptocurrency addresses involved in the sales.
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