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James Carter

June 24, 2023

Fentanyl Ingredients Sold for Crypto by Chinese Labs

As a form of payment for the fentanyl ingredients they supply to drug groups all over the world, Chinese chemical manufacturers are beginning to take cryptocurrencies.

Fentanyl Ingredients Sold for Crypto

Elliptic, a platform for crypto analytics, has discovered more than 90 Chinese chemical enterprises that supplied fentanyl precursor chemicals and marketed their products on the open web. Ninety percent of these organizations offered to take payment in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Tether (USDT).

According to a recent report published by the corporation, “many of these businesses were also willing to supply fentanyl itself, despite the fact that this has been prohibited in China since 2019.”

According to the research, the majority of Chinese laboratories that supply fentanyl compounds used accounts at “three specific exchanges” located outside of China. The report did not name these exchanges, but it did reveal their location.

Elliptic revealed that they had received thousands of payments totalling just over $27 million after conducting an analysis of the cryptocurrency wallets used by these companies. They also revealed that the number of “transactions has increased by 450% year-on-year.”

Fentanyl Ingredients

According to Elliptic, many vendors confirmed they have delivered fentanyl precursors as well as the actual drug itself to Mexico. Mexico is the source of the majority of the Fentanyl that is brought into the United States.

The majority of Fentanyl that is illegally smuggled into the USA is produced using precursors that purchased from Chinese vendors.

In a related investigation, the blockchain analysis company Chainalaysis found that cryptocurrency addresses that are suspected to be involved. With the sale of fentanyl precursors in China have received more than $37.8 million worth of bitcoin since 2018.

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According to the findings of the investigation, cryptocurrency users headquartered in Latin America were the most involved in transactions. It is estimated that these users have contributed over $3.6 million worth of cryptocurrency to chemical businesses based in China.

US Authorities Point to the Role Played by Cryptocurrency in Fentanyl Trades

During a hearing in front of Congress, US Senator Elizabeth Warren raised attention to the role played by cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrencies played in the transaction of fentanyl drugs and advocated for her legislation to combat money laundering.

The Democrat from Massachusetts, who has been an outspoken opponent of cryptocurrencies for a long time, claims that her bill, the Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act, will address gaps “in our anti-money laundering rules and cuts off drugs suppliers and cartels from using cryptocurrency to fuel their illegal business.”

Funding of Fentanyl Trafficking

“Cryptocurrency is contributing to the funding of fentanyl trafficking. And we have the ability to stop that from happening. “The time has come,” Warren said during a hearing before the Senate Banking Committee.

Fentanyl is a synthetics opioid pain medication that functions in a manner comparable to that of morphine. But has the potential to be up to one hundred times more powerful. It is given to patients by their doctors as treatment for severe pain, such as that which cancer patients endure.

However, because of profound effects it has on the body, Fentanyl is also manufactured and consumed illegally as recreational narcotic.

Since its introduction, it has been consistently regarded as one of the Bitcoin underworld’s most perilous goods.

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According to various studies conducted by the National Institutes of Health in 2021, the United States reported more than 106,000 drug overdose deaths in that year, of which around 70,600 were related to the use of synthetic opioids.

In recent years, the majority of markets on the dark web have begun prohibiting the sale of the drug. This is owing the fact that the substance is harmful to clients as well as accompanying attention from law authorities.

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