The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) said in a report published this week that global efforts to regulate virtual assets and service providers have improved but remain incomplete, with illegal use of stablescoins strongly accelerating in 2025.
The sixth targeted update of the intergovernmental Watchdog on the implementation of its standards revealed that, although 73% of the jurisdictions interviewed adopted laws applying the so -called travel rule for crypto transfers, the application of the law remains limited.
The report noted that of the 85 countries with laws on travel rules, almost 60% have not yet issued the conclusions or directives of compliance.
The report also highlighted this year a record virtual flight of $ 1.46 billion by North Korean actors from the Crypto Exchange bybit.
The FATF noted that the pirates used social engineering and complex whitening networks involving mixers, over -the -counter traders and more than 125,000 Ethereum wallets. Only 3.8% of stolen funds were recovered, highlighting persistent difficulties in tracing and repatriating products related to cryptography.
Overall, Stablecoins have become the dominant vehicle for illegal activity on the chain, driven by their low cost, their rapid regulations and their broad liquidity.
The FATF cited the estimates of the private sector showing more than 30 billions of dollars in stabb volume in the past year, in parallel with the growth of “Pig Butchering” scams and professional scam networks employing chatbots generated by AI and deep frauds to defraud the victims.
Despite these risks, the report revealed that a single jurisdiction is fully in accordance with the recommendation of FATF 15 on monitoring virtual assets. Meanwhile, 29% of the countries have been evaluated “largely in line”, while around half is only partially in conformity and 21% are not at all in conformity.
The FATF has urged jurisdictions to accelerate licenses and the registration of virtual asset service providers, strengthen the application against unregistered entities and implement measures to monitor decentralized financing agreements (DEFI).
The report has also noted that around half of the regulators questioned require DEFI projects with identifiable control parts to register as Vasques, but the application remains rare.
For the future, FATF’s plans have targeted reports on the stablecoins, offshore and defi basins over the next year. The regulatory organization has warned that as stablecoins are approaching mass adoption, unequal global regulations will increase illicit financial risks and obstruct the coordinated responses.
The next full update of recommendation 15 is due in 2026.
