According to a new report by Elliptic, Doge coin DOGE has become linked to a number of illegal activities such as terrorism financing, Ponzi schemes and child sex abuse.
The meme coin, popularized by Elon Musk, has become a popular choice for bad actors to facilitate transactions in the millions.
In July 2021, Israel's National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing issued a seizure order against 84 crypto addresses believed to be associated with the Hamas group. One of the wallets contained $40,235 in Doge coin.
A growing number of CSAM vendors on the darknet and outside now receiveBitcoin, according to the analytics company. Elliptics only identified $3000 in Dogecoin, which is a small amount.
It warned that there was a growing appetite for criminal actors to adopt a wide range of assets in order to avoid notice. Doge coin is accepted by a number of darknet markets and malware campaigns. Elliptic identified darknet services, such as Just-Kill, that still accept Doge coin, while others don't accept it.
Far right extremist groups also seem to like Doge coin, including cryptocurrencies, as well as terrorists. These groups, far-rights blog sites, news and video sharing platforms, use Doge coin to raise funds when they can't use traditional methods.
Infowars is one such website. The news website has raised more than 1,700 dollars in Dogecoin, a far-right globalism-battling news website.
This discovery is similar to the revelations of the Financial Action Task Force last year about far-rights groups using cryptocurrencies such asBitcoin and privacy coins.
Ponzi schemes, theft, and fraud seem to be the biggest illicit use of Doge coin. Elliptic has identified over 50 cases where criminals have slashed millions of dollars in Doge coin.
A Turkish Ponzi scheme and the theft of $119 million in Doge coin have been some of the most popular cases of theft last year. The Chinese government seized more than $20 million DOGE in the $6 billion PlusToken Ponzi scheme in 2020.