Global authorities hunting crypto crime are running into a new problem: the laundering layer is no longer improvised, fragmented, or small.
Instead, investigators are increasingly confronting a professionalized financial infrastructure operating largely in Chinese-language networks – one that now plays a central role in moving illicit crypto funds across borders.
Key Takeaways
Chinese-language networks now act as core infrastructure for global crypto laundering.
Stablecoins and self-custody are the main enablers of scale and speed.
Enforcement is shifting from chasing wallets to dismantling financial networks.
Laundering becomes a service industry
Blockchain analysts say crypto crime has entered a new phase. Rather than criminals laundering funds themselves, specialized intermediaries now handle the entire process, offering conversion, obfuscation, and settlement as bundled services.
Data from Chainalysis shows that these Chinese-language networks have grown into one of the dominant clearing layers for illicit crypto, quietly processing a significant share of illegal digital flows worldwide over recent years.
What stands out is not just scale, but structure. The activity has expanded from a narrow set of wallets into a sprawling ecosystem resembling a shadow payments network.
Speed beats secrecy
Unlike older informal value-transfer systems that relied on human brokers and manual ledgers, crypto allows these networks to move value instantly and globally. That efficiency has made them attractive to a wide range of criminal clients, from fraud operators to international trafficking groups.
Stablecoins have become the primary tool. Their price stability and ease of transfer make them ideal for laundering proceeds generated in cash-heavy crimes, while Bitcoin remains a secondary option for cross-chain movement and settlement.
China’s ban creates a paradox
China’s formal prohibition on cryptocurrency trading has not eliminated crypto activity – it has reshaped it.
Analysts note that enforcement inside China tends to prioritize threats to capital controls and financial stability, rather than eliminating all crypto usage outright. That leaves space for underground actors who operate quietly, often serving foreign demand rather than domestic markets.
These networks also cater to individuals seeking to move money across borders outside official channels, adding another layer of demand.
Global crime plugs in
Western authorities have become increasingly vocal about the role these laundering groups play in international crime. US officials have warned that Chinese-language brokers now function as financial conduits for drug trafficking organizations and other transnational groups, replacing slower, riskier cash-based methods.
Crypto allows them to compress what once took weeks into transactions completed in minutes, without relying on correspondent banking or physical transport.
The stablecoin blind spot
Regulators are particularly concerned about the rise of stablecoins held in self-custodied wallets. While transactions remain visible on public blockchains, the absence of regulated intermediaries removes a critical layer of monitoring and reporting.
The Financial Action Task Force has repeatedly warned that this combination – stablecoins plus unhosted wallets – is becoming the dominant vector for illicit crypto activity.
From wallets to infrastructure
What alarms investigators most is that this is no longer about chasing individual bad actors. The laundering layer itself has become infrastructure: resilient, multilingual, and adaptable across jurisdictions.
As crypto adoption expands, enforcement agencies face a familiar challenge from traditional finance, now reborn on-chain – dismantling networks that function less like gangs and more like financial institutions operating entirely outside the law.
