WIRED | Conservative estimates show that the use of cryptocurrency in sales of human beings for prostitution and scam compounds nearly doubled in 2025. A WIRED article from investigative journalist Andy Greenberg says that many of the deals are happening in plain sight.

Research from crypto-tracing firm Chainalysis found that crypto transactions for human trafficking grew at least 85% year over year. That puts the value as hundreds of millions of dollars annually — at least. The number likely undercounts the true scale.

Greenberg explores the research further and provides context, outlining the situation in Chinese-run scam compounds in Cambodia, Myanmar, and Laos.

Greenberg also talks to Operation Shamrock’s Erin West, who points out that two companies appear as a common element in the human trafficking industry:

Telegram as a market platform
Tether as a stablecoin means of payment

West points out that both companies have the opportunity to prevent human trafficking. Telegram could ban the traffickers' accounts, and Tether could seize or freeze their assets. Yet both companies allow criminal operations to use their tools.

“Why are Telegram and Tether OK with making money from the exploitation of humans? They know this is happening. This money's being moved on their platform, and the discussions are in open forums,” West says. “There are certain very obvious bad actors that we can point to that, were they to be stopped, would make a substantial dent in the ability to openly discuss these horrific things and pay for them.”

Read the full article, “Crypto-Funded Human Trafficking Is Exploding,” at WIRED.