If cryptocurrency isn't the preferred payment method of criminals,how can you explain that it's the main method used in the Darkweb?
Darkweb represents only a tiny fraction of the contraband trade. Do you really think that the total turnover of dark webs come anyway near that of the Mexican cartels? According to the latest estimates, the combined turnover for all the dark web sites was less than $1 billion in 2018. The annual turnover of second-string Mexican cartels easily amount to a few tens of billions of USD.
This depends a lot.
Your statement here is correct, but the reason why crypto is popular in the darknet is mostly due to the excess of privacy coins, and not really because of BTC or other popular cryptos.
I realize you said crypto in your post, but this is a common misconception so it is good to clear it up. The biggest issue with a crime is probably not the darknet, but you must admit that privacy coins are very important and crucial to the darknet.
The problem here is, related to the crimes you are talking about that happen on the darknet, the biggest issue isn't that they are using crypto to pay for it, this is just an article made to manipulate the mainstream audience into hating BTC, and regarding volatility, there are tons of coins that are fairly stable, so it isn't a huge issue.
