Crypto Flows to Human Trafficking Services Jump 85% to Hundreds of Millions in 2025
As world consideration stays mounted on the continued launch and scrutiny of emails and paperwork tied to intercourse trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, consideration has turned to how exploitation networks function and transfer cash.
Against this backdrop, a brand new report from Chainalysis disclosed that cryptocurrency flows to suspected human trafficking-related companies surged sharply in 2025. Transaction volumes reached a whole bunch of thousands and thousands of {dollars}, up 85% year-over-year. While the figures quantify monetary exercise, the report harassed that the true price of these crimes is borne by victims, not steadiness sheets.
Trafficking-Linked Crypto Activity
The improve in crypto-linked trafficking exercise has occurred alongside the growth of Southeast Asia–based mostly rip-off compounds, on-line playing operations, and Chinese-language cash laundering and assure networks, many of which function brazenly on Telegram and kind a tightly linked illicit ecosystem with world attain.
Unlike cash-based techniques, blockchain transparency helps investigators to hint these flows, thereby creating alternatives to determine and disrupt networks that may in any other case stay hidden. Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis tracked 4 major classes of suspected cryptocurrency-facilitated trafficking: Telegram-based “worldwide escort” companies suspected of trafficking folks; “labor placement” brokers linked to kidnapping and compelled labor in rip-off compounds; prostitution networks; and distributors of little one sexual abuse materials (CSAM).
Payment habits differs throughout classes. “International escort” companies and prostitution networks rely virtually fully on stablecoins as they prioritize worth stability and ease of conversion, however CSAM distributors have traditionally favored Bitcoin. However, its dominance is declining as different Layer 1 networks and privateness instruments emerge.
Escort companies have been discovered to be deeply built-in with Chinese-language cash laundering networks that quickly convert stablecoins into native currencies and scale back publicity to asset freezes by centralized issuers. Transaction-size evaluation factors to professionalized operations as almost 49% of “worldwide escort” service transfers surpass $10,000, which is according to organized enterprises working at scale.
Meanwhile, prostitution networks cluster in the $1,000-$10,000 vary. These networks typically use structured pricing and customer-service fashions, promoting standardized charges throughout main East Asian cities, which in flip produce identifiable on-chain patterns helpful for detection.
CSAM Crypto Economy
CSAM operations reveal a distinct construction. It was discovered that roughly half of transactions are underneath $100, and there’s a shift towards subscription-based fashions that generate predictable income streams. In 2025, Chainalysis noticed rising use of Monero and on the spot exchangers to launder CSAM proceeds, in addition to an rising overlap between CSAM networks and sadistic on-line extremism communities, the place abuse materials is monetized by cryptocurrency funds.
One main CSAM web site recognized in July 2025 alone used greater than 5,800 crypto addresses and generated over $530,000 since 2022. The report additionally acknowledged that trafficking-linked companies leverage US-based infrastructure for scale and legitimacy, whereas operators typically stay abroad to restrict private publicity.
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