Dear Joseph,

Thank you once again for reading my work and taking the time to share your insight on the matter.

As you will no doubt have noted, my intent behind this piece was to highlight the outsize media attention that cryptocurrencies get for money laundering in relation to the global market for money laundering.

Here, I would suggest we compare like with like. While it may be tempting to use the percentage of Bitcoin transactions used for the purpose of money laundering against the total circulation of Bitcoin — that result would be misleading, it needs to be compared against the total value of all currencies used in money laundering.

For instance, if it were found that 90% of Chevy Impalas were used in hit-and-run accidents, it would not be fair to say that Chevy Impalas are 90% more likely to be used in hit-and-run accidents nor would it be accurate to say that of all hit-and-run accidents, Chevy Impalas were the cause of 90% of them — this is know as a deductive fallacy.

Even if one out of every four Bitcoin transactions was used for money laundering (it is not — there is scant accurate data to confirm such an assertion), that does not mean that Bitcoin is four times more likely to be used as cash in money laundering.

The point I am trying to make is that given the miniscule market capitalization of cryptocurrencies in general, their “reputation” for money laundering is entirely disproportionate to their actual use for such nefarious activities.

Thank you for sharing your insight and for adding to the discussion.

Any errors and omissions remain strictly mine.

Yours,

Patrick Tan