In a report detailing ransomware-related financial transactions, FinCEN reveals that these 177 unique wallet addresses were used to make $5.2 billion in outgoing Bitcoin transactions, most of which could be potentially related to ransomware.
Between January 1 and June 30, 2021, there were 635 ransomware-related suspicious activity reports (SARs) filed by financial institutions, including 458 transactions that occurred in this timeframe.
The total value of the suspicious activity was $590 million, significantly higher than the $416 million registered for the entire 2020. The registered transactions for the first half of the year amounted to $398 million — the difference represents transactions registered before January 1, 2021.
