Crypto privacy protocols are becoming increasingly prevalent in money laundering, but new research shows a drastic discrepancy in their usage.
According to data from more than 200 on-chain investigations conducted in 2025 and 2026, compiled by the crypto analyst known as WazzCrypto, Tornado Cash emerged as the most frequently identified privacy protocol.
Specifically, Tornado Cash appeared in 107 investigations, putting it well ahead of other privacy-focused protocols. For comparison, Railgun ranked second with just 18 investigations, followed by NEAR Intents with eight.
Tornado Cash becomes the most widely used crypto privacy protocol in money laundering
Looking at the numbers, the gap between Tornado Cash and the rest of the field is immediately apparent. Indeed, Tornado Cash was linked to more than five times as many investigations as the trailing Railgun, while the remaining protocols each appeared in single-digit cases.
For example, WazzCrypto’s ranking also included Wasabi/WabiSabi CoinJoin with seven investigations, followed by CoinJoin with five. Unnamed privacy protocols and Umbra each appeared twice, while Hinkal, SilentSwap, Monero (XMR), and shielded Zcash each featured in one investigation.
Overall, the data seem to suggest that privacy technologies are frequently used to obscure the movement of cryptocurrency. This is because privacy protocols can make blockchain transactions more difficult to trace by breaking or obscuring links between addresses.
For example, Railgun uses zero-knowledge (zk) cryptography to conceal transaction details such as the sender, recipient, token type, and amount. The protocol also has a Private-Proofs-of-Innocence (PPoI) system designed to allow users to demonstrate that deposited funds are not associated with specified lists of suspicious transactions or actors.
While privacy infrastructure has emerged as a recurring theme in money laundering investigations, it must be noted that the data presented above measured how often each protocol appeared in the analyzed cases, not how much illicit money each protocol processed. Therefore, further research is needed for the complete picture to emerge.
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