“Taking into account the scale with which opponents operate, it makes it difficult to protect, and therefore the stakes for exchanges and the cryptocurrency ecosystem as a whole are very high,” the report says.

Darknet Markets

Despite the incessant attempts by law enforcement agencies to fight back against illegal activities on the Internet, the darknet continues to demonstrate a high degree of stability. According to the study, the general trend is that in place of one site closed by the authorities, others immediately appear, as, for example, was the case with AlphaBay and Hansa.

Both of these sites were closed in mid-2017, and although the volume of bitcoin transactions in the darknet decreased by 60% immediately after that, it did not last long. Moreover, at the end of 2017, the volume of transactions turned out to be a record — $707 million

However, the most remarkable thing is that the popularity of illegal markets was practically not affected by the fall of the markets in any way — despite the decline in quotations, the volume of transactions in dollar terms for most of 2018 showed growth, reaching a cumulative figure of $ 603 million.