Book Review: The Crypto Launderers: Crime and CryptoCurrencies

The Crypto Launderers: Crime and Cryptocurrencies from the Dark Web to DeFi and Beyond – by David Carlisle

I wish I had a way to review this book without having first read last year’s “Tracers in the Dark.” While Tracers talked about the people involved in investigating various crypto-based crimes and those early researchers who made the tracing process possible, Carlisle tells many of the same stories, but in a less engaging way. The facts are there, and when they talk about the same cases, they align nicely. But Andy Greenberg’s Tracers makes those cases stories about people, while Carlisle portrays facts without character development which I would not have realized was necessary or useful in a book on Money Laundering had I not read Tracers first.

As to the facts? I learned a ton, especially by feeding my ADD nature by chasing interesting footnotes — more than 350 references are provided! Thank you!!!
In the early part of the book he covers all of the mandatory cases: Silk Road, Mt. Gox, etc.

Where this book is great, and it is far superior to Tracers as an educational resource in this regard, is how money-laundering works in Crypto. Mixers and Coinswaps are explained well, with several of the related cases such as Helix and Bitcoin Fog, being explained. The importance of regulation and how regulators have followed behind crypto developments is a major theme of the book. From regulating exchanges, to Bitcoin ATMs, to privacy wallets such as Wasabi Wallet, and the debate on whether privacy wallets can or should be regulated.
The attempts of FinCEN to introduce further regulations and the (in my opinion) Astroturfed outcry ag

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