President Trump has launched his own cryptocurrency venture and pledged to transform the United States into the world’s leading “crypto capital.” As crypto companies promote themselves as secure and trustworthy, major sectors—from Wall Street banks to e-commerce giants—have increasingly explored digital assets.
Yet despite the industry’s growing mainstream acceptance, more than $28 billion linked to illegal activity has moved through crypto exchanges over the past two years, according to an investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, The New York Times, and 36 global media partners. The funds originated from hackers, scammers, and extortion networks spanning locations from North Korea to Minnesota and Myanmar. These groups repeatedly funneled their proceeds into major crypto exchanges, where users can trade traditional currencies for digital coins like Bitcoin and Ether.
Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, was among the platforms that received a portion of this illicit money and had entered a $2 billion business arrangement with Trump’s crypto company in May. At least eight other major exchanges, including OKX, were also implicated in the analysis.
In the early years, digital currencies were heavily used by criminals due to their speed and pseudonymity, which facilitated money laundering and powered dark-web drug markets. But as the industry expanded and matured, exchanges vowed to crack down on illicit activity. Binance itself pleaded guilty to money-laundering violations in 2023 and paid a $4.3 billion U.S. penalty after enabling transactions for terrorist groups such as Hamas and Al Qaeda. The company later proclaimed that crypto had become “an extremely unwelcoming place to bad actors.”
Despite this, Trump has made crypto central to his business empire and reversed several regulatory efforts targeting the sector. In the run-up to the 2024 election, he and his sons founded World Liberty Financial, a crypto start-up that stands to earn tens of millions annually from its deal with Binance. Trump also pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao last month, following his four-month prison term tied to the exchange’s earlier plea settlement.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has curtailed law-enforcement efforts to tackle crypto-related crime. In April, the Justice Department disbanded a key crypto enforcement team, signaling that prosecutors should focus on criminals using crypto—not on the platforms they rely on to move illicit funds.
