Sex, Drugs, and Bitcoin: How Much Illegal Activity Is Financed through Cryptocurrencies?

被引：430

作者：

Foley, Sean ^{[1
]}

Karlsen, Jonathan R. ^{[2
]}

Putnins, Talis J. ^{[2
,3
]}

机构：

[1] Univ Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

[2] Univ Technol Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

[3] Sch Econ Riga, Stockholm, Sweden

来源：

REVIEW OF FINANCIAL STUDIES | 2019年 / 32卷 / 05期

基金：

澳大利亚研究理事会;

关键词：

LOGISTICS;

D O I：

10.1093/rfs/hhz015

中图分类号：

F8 [财政、金融];

学科分类号：

0202 ;

摘要：

Cryptocurrencies are among the largest unregulated markets in the world. We find that approximately one-quarter of bitcoin users are involved in illegal activity. We estimate that around 76 billion of illegal activity per year involve bitcoin (46% of bitcoin transactions), which is close to the scale of the U.S. and European markets for illegal drugs. The illegal share of bitcoin activity declines with mainstream interest in bitcoin and with the emergence of more opaque cryptocurrencies. The techniques developed in this paper have applications in cryptocurrency surveillance. Our findings suggest that cryptocurrencies are transforming the black markets by enabling black e-commerce. Received June 1, 2017; editorial decision December 8, 2018 by Editor Andrew Karolyi. Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix, which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online.

引用

页码：1798 / 1853

页数：56