Security News > 2021 > October > US links $5.2 billion worth of Bitcoin transactions to ransomware
Based on blockchain analysis of transactions tied to the 177 CVC wallets, FinCEN identified roughly $5.2 billion in outgoing BTC transactions potentially tied to ransomware payments.
FinCEN also linked these transactions to a total of $590 million exposed by 458 transactions reported and 635 SARs filed by financial institutions this year, between January 2021 and June 2021.
"According to data generated from ransomware-related SARs, the mean average total monthly suspicious amount of ransomware transactions was $66.4 million and the median average was $45 million," FinCEN said.
FinCEN's Financial Trend Analysis report comes on the heels of governments worldwide announcing that they will crack down on cryptocurrency payment channels used by ransomware gangs.
Last month, the U.S. Treasury also announced its first-ever sanctions against a cryptocurrency exchange for facilitating ransom transactions for ransomware gangs.
One year ago, it also warned that ransomware negotiators that they could face civil penalties for facilitating ransom payments if ransomware gangs already on its sanctions list were involved.