Crypto Use in Human Trafficking Surges by 85% in 2025
- Recruitment payments linked to labor trafficking typically range between $1,000 and $10,000.
- Prostitution and escort networks increasingly use stablecoins for transactions.
- Bitcoin remains widely used, but Monero is favored by CSAM vendors for its transaction privacy.
- 48.8% of transfers tied to Telegram-based escort networks exceeded $10,000 in value.
- Crypto transactions related to human trafficking reached hundreds of millions of dollars in suspected services in the past year.
The latest report highlights a significant increase in cryptocurrency use within human trafficking operations, with a notable shift towards stablecoins for prostitution and labor trafficking networks due to ease of conversion through Chinese-language money laundering networks.
Chainalysis reports that crypto usage linked to suspected human trafficking rose significantly, with transactions reaching hundreds of millions across identified services, marking an industry-defining moment according to their intelligence analyst Tom McLouth.( Source)
