Money laundering by NFT after cryptocurrency is a concern for the government

- Cryptocurrency worth about 8,600 sent to NFT Marketplace in the fourth quarter from a restricted address

- In the NFT marketplace, there was an incident where the value of digital assets was artificially increased by 'wash trading'.

Cryptocurrency as well as non-fungible tokens (NFT) are becoming a headache for the government. This is because the NFT is being suspected of being misused by terrorist groups and criminals for money laundering and hawala-based transactions. Money laundering is on the rise due to NFT buying and selling.

According to a report by blockchain data platform Chainalysis, a small portion of their operations at the NFT marketplace are growing rapidly, which could be attributed to money laundering. Of course, it is difficult to determine the extent of money laundering in real estate.

According to a report, in the third quarter of 2031, value sent to NFT Marketplace by unknown or illegal addresses increased significantly, surpassing the કર 1 million cryptocurrency. The figure rose again to ૪ 1.5 million in the fourth quarter. Most of these activities in both quarters involve scandal-related addresses that send funds to the NFT marketplace to make purchases, ”the report said.

"The most worrying thing is that in the fourth quarter, we noticed that approximately ૨ 4,8,000 worth of cryptocurrencies were shipped to the NFT marketplace from a restricted address," the researchers said.

In the year 2021, the popularity of NFT reached Assam. ChanelLissy tracked cryptocurrencies worth at least ૨ 4.5 billion sent to ERC-21 and ERC-114 contracts.

Wash trading is taking place in some NFTs. 'Wash trading' is the execution of a transaction in which the seller is on both sides of the trade to create an artificial view of the value of an asset and liquidity. Wash trading is another concern for NFT.

Using blockchain analysis, the researchers identified 7 users who have sold NFT at self-financed addresses more than 3 times. The 110 Profitable Wash Traders collectively made a profit of about ૮૯ 500,000 from this activity, which is less than the loss of ૫૨ 4,13,8 incurred by the 12 Unprofitable Wash Traders. To make matters worse, ૮૯ 500,000 has mostly gone to unsuspecting buyers who believe that the NFT they are selling is increasing in value and is being bought by a collector.

In the last one year, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in India has raised Rs. More than Rs 2,000 crore worth of illegal transactions were exposed. Serious concerns were raised about the misuse of digital currency on the Dark Web for terrorist acts and drug trafficking by terrorist organizations, as well as money laundering and hawala-based transactions - a major threat to national security and a major challenge for Indian security agencies.

What is a non-fungible token (NFT)?

NFT is a unique digital locker or asset in a blockchain network. Its value depends on how much a person offers to pay for it and how much it demands. You can sell photos, games, videos, tweets to anyone by converting them to NFT. The most important thing is that these digital assets are bought and sold only with cryptocurrency. NFT is a unique ID code, so no two NFTs can ever be matched or duplicated. When you own an NFT, you are the sole owner of those digital assets.