{"id":50537,"date":"2023-05-24T09:29:01","date_gmt":"2023-05-24T13:29:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/?p=50537"},"modified":"2023-05-24T09:32:56","modified_gmt":"2023-05-24T13:32:56","slug":"crypto-fuels-fentanyl-ingredient-trade-in-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/crypto-fuels-fentanyl-ingredient-trade-in-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Crypto Fuels Fentanyl Ingredient Trade In China"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

An Elliptic report revealed that Chinese chemical manufacturers accept cryptocurrencies for fentanyl precursors and have received over $27 million in crypto payments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Crypto<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Doctors legally prescribe fentanyl for severe pain, but illegal producers and sellers also offer it as a recreational drug. Fentanyl is highly addictive and can cause fatal overdoses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of the fentanyl trafficked into the U.S. is made with precursors imported from Chinese suppliers, according to Elliptic.\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n <\/g>\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n <\/clipPath>\r\n <\/defs><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crypto payments and fentanyl precursor trade<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Elliptic said it found over 90 Chinese chemical companies<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> selling fentanyl precursors and advertised their products on the open web. Of these, 90% accepted cryptocurrency payments, mostly Bitcoin and Tether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elliptic analyzed the cryptocurrency wallets used by these companies and estimated that they received over $27 million in crypto payments<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> in the past five years, with a 450% increase in the past year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201c$27 million would purchase enough precursor to produce fentanyl pills with a street value of approximately $54 billion,\u201d <\/p>\nElliptic<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Some suppliers also offered to provide fentanyl itself or other synthetic opioids that are more potent than fentanyl but are legal in China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most suppliers used accounts at three unnamed non-Chinese exchanges, according to Elliptic. Elliptic also notified the exchanges and flagged hundreds of crypto addresses linked to this activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fentanyl overdose crisis and its impact<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Using cryptocurrency<\/a> for fentanyl precursor trade shows how crypto can facilitate illicit transactions and evade regulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the National Institutes of Health, fentanyl overdose deaths claimed more than 70,000 lives in the United States in 2021. Elliptic noted that Fentanyl overdoses<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> are also the primary cause of death among Americans aged 18 to 45.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. has sanctioned fentanyl suppliers, including a Dutch individual who made an $85,000 payment to one of the Chinese companies identified by Elliptic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The United States has also urged China to ban the production and export of fentanyl precursors and other synthetic opioids. China has pledged to cooperate but blamed the U.S.<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> for its high drug demand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Elliptic report revealed that Chinese chemical manufacturers accept cryptocurrencies for fentanyl precursors and have received over $27 million in crypto payments. Doctors legally prescribe fentanyl for severe pain, but illegal producers and sellers also offer it as a recreational drug. Fentanyl is highly addictive and can cause fatal overdoses. Most of the fentanyl trafficked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":50539,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[322,376,4060,4868,1559],"class_list":["post-50537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrencies","tag-china","tag-cryptocurrencies","tag-drugs","tag-illegal-crypto-transactions","tag-us"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/china-crypto-drugabuse.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}