Why criminals prefer cash (Fiat) on top of crypto?

[Abiky]

It's a very interesting discussion for me. Why do criminals prefer fiat money of course because fiat money still dominates higher adoption and of course they still find it easier to use fiat currency than crypto.
In addition cryptocurrencies have unstable value, perhaps that is also the problem for them.
With the implementation of KYC security system and fingerprint of course this is also the fear of criminals.

The price volatility of crypto is what's killing its adoption in the mainstream world. Criminals can make use of privacy-oriented coins like Monero and Grin to preserve their anonymity. But without stable prices on the market, such coins won't be used seriously for daily payments. Not to mention, merchant and business adoption is extremely low. Because of these and many other reasons, criminals will continue to carry on with their lives using Fiat as their top currency of choice.

At least, governments will approve of crypto once illegal activity is reduced to a minimum. Bitcoin and other public blockchains' transparency, allows law enforcement to track malicious actors with ease. Criminals will stay away from these types of cryptocurrencies as much as possible, embracing privacy-oriented coins in every way. This will lead towards a full government crackdown on coins like Monero and Grin. But their decentralized and open source nature will allow them to operate "behind the scenes". It'll be interesting to know how everything unfolds in the crypto/Blockchain space as it becomes more popular in the mainstream world. Hopefully, criminals would stay away from crypto for the sake of the entire industry. Just my opinion

[zanezane]

I think they prefer cryptocoins...like hackers

Conventional crimes are not yet ready to adopt cryptocurrency as their means of handling money. You have to understand that hackers(black hat hackers) and drug ring are a different kind of criminal. Hackers knows the in and outs when they are in the cyberspace so they wouldn't have a problem with cryptocurrency, meanwhile criminals that are not in the realm of cyber space like drug rings as I said earlier have problem trusting technology, they know that authorities are on their tail so anything that they can't control like data flowing on the Internet is not the best option, not to mention that schisms and treason can be a thing in this rings which means that if they were to deal in cryptocurrency, one of them could simply take it without everyone knowing where it went. Criminals also have a hard time going for new technology so they stick with what works for them the best.

[Twinkledoe]

Cash is not easy to track, and it is impossible to know the flow of his funds

That's the main reason why they are still using fiat. Besides, I believe most of these criminals are not yet well-versed with crypto. Though they can always learn if they want to. But it is hard to change their old habits. They are already used to fiat for long time, for as long as they can remember doing their illegal activities. But I believe for those who will discover the advantages of crypto, they will more than likely use it. As they can transfer from one border to another without carrying any cash, they will find out that is easy peasy to move money without incurring so much fees. They don't need to pay other third parties just to move their money.

[pinggoki]

Cash is not easy to track, and it is impossible to know the flow of his funds

That's the main reason why they are still using fiat. Besides, I believe most of these criminals are not yet well-versed with crypto. Though they can always learn if they want to. But it is hard to change their old habits. They are already used to fiat for long time, for as long as they can remember doing their illegal activities. But I believe for those who will discover the advantages of crypto, they will more than likely use it. As they can transfer from one border to another without carrying any cash, they will find out that is easy peasy to move money without incurring so much fees. They don't need to pay other third parties just to move their money.

Simply criminals prefer cash or FIAT it is because they can already use it as long as they get it they can transfer it to anyone and the easiest thing to do is that they can use it already without any hassle, but I agree with you mate if they will know that crypto can help them to manage the transactions without tracking, they may like it also but I understand that it is a matter of accustomed in which the criminal was already doing their old transaction by using fiat money it is hard to convince them to switch into another platform. But if they will just know the advantage of crypto maybe they will know that it is more good to use.

[xodakovs]

Criminals prefer fiat because it is old, accessible and job-proved way to get money. Well, but there are also many hacker attacks. I frequently read news about cyber-attacks on exchange markets. Remember also Nicehash hackers attack in December 2017, when approximately 4,700 Bitcoins (US$64 million at the time of the hack) were stolen. Think, most hackers in crypto try to play for high stakes

[ivankoh]

The traditional fiat is more widely accepted around the world than crypto, and we know all the criminals, scammers and corrupt leaders prefer their money in fiat, since it's much easier to spend just about anywhere, whereas if the money is in crypto you have to be taking it out but by bit to avoid any suspicious activity, for this reason criminals prefer laundering money in fiat instead of crypto.

In my opinion, there are no statistics that show that criminals will prefer cash. If your opinion is a financial crime? Either way, I think they won't like using cash for their activities. that means the evidence will face them. or for a higher framework, the "hacker" high-tech crime, cash will point a knife at them.

I have found some relevant figures:

In France, any purchase or sale with cash valued at more than $ 1,000 is illegal. According to Courrier international, in Italy, cash payment is only possible when the value of goods and services is below 3,252 USD.

Suppose this is the paradox. Any use of money would be known to be criminal? WTF...

[KEN C]

One of the great features of cash is that it cannot be traced. It can facilitate transactions anytime and anywhere, and the official cannot review the flow of funds, so that the safety of funds can be guaranteed to the maximum extent, and it will naturally be loved by criminals.

[TedMosby]

not sure about the statement because I think we should use the ratio of the number of crimes and population and compare it to the number of crypto crimes and crypto users. crypto criminals keep raising every year. we only see a few on mainstream media, but it always involves big money on it.
I believe most of the crimes rely on fiat because they don't have much time to educate the victim about bitcoin first 

[DrBeer]

Wash everything is very clear!
1. Cash is well accepted by all participants in any transactions
2. It is convenient to "hide" them in the mass of other money.
3. Cryptocurrencies, especially anonymous ones, have come under the attention of regulatory authorities, and most likely will soon become essentially illegal.
4. Cryptocurrencies, for the opportunity to take advantage, must be converted to fiat.
5. Large amounts of cryptocurrencies, now it is difficult to withdraw to fiat

[Abiky]

Fiat money is easy to get and more reliable to accessible. You can easily steal fiat than cryptocurrencies.
Blockchain innovation makes their security more intense to break and criminals would prefer not to waste their time by hacking it.
But if the criminals are smart like a scammer ( who may consider as a criminal ) it can easily misdirect people and stealing their coins.

That's certainly true, mate. Fiat is much easier than crypto because it exists in a physical form. It's stable in price and can be used offline as well. This allows criminals to remain under the scope of law enforcement, as there's virtually no way to trace physical cash transactions back to them. Crypto is all of the opposite, since most of them have visible blockchain ledgers anyone can audit. It's easy enough to track & trace criminals through transparent cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum than Fiat itself. Privacy coins are a better solution, but they're extremely volatile in price and mainstream adoption is very low. For these and many other reasons, criminals will continue to use Fiat for all of their nefarious activities.

At least, crypto will come out as "clean" in the long run. The more people use it legitimately, the higher the chances of governments' approval will be. Believe me, once criminals start using crypto in mass, governments will crackdown on the industry until they reduce its prominence in the mainstream world. They might shut off Fiat on/off ramps for crypto, while declaring it to be illegal. Only then, crypto's growth will diminish until it becomes the holy grail of the underground economy. Let's hope that criminal activity on crypto stays low in order to prevent this from happening in the future. Just my opinion

[South Park]

Wash everything is very clear!
1. Cash is well accepted by all participants in any transactions
2. It is convenient to "hide" them in the mass of other money.
3. Cryptocurrencies, especially anonymous ones, have come under the attention of regulatory authorities, and most likely will soon become essentially illegal.
4. Cryptocurrencies, for the opportunity to take advantage, must be converted to fiat.
5. Large amounts of cryptocurrencies, now it is difficult to withdraw to fiat

It is relatively simple, the adoption of bitcoin while still increasing is moving at a slower rate than what we expect, criminals use fiat currencies because they can easily deal it among themselves and use it to buy the stuff they want or need, cryptocurrencies as attractive as they may be to us have not reached the level of adoption we all may like and as such criminals are still dealing mainly with fiat currencies despite what the media and the governments may like you to believe.

[Wawa2013]

Since most criminals are not familiar with crypto, moreover selling crypto is not as easy as selling Fiat. From that simple thought, criminals will
definitely prefer fiat over crypto. Although crypto is anonymous but the reality is easier to trace, after all, nearly all exchanges enforcing KYC
make it difficult for some criminals to sell crypto.

Usually simple criminal thinking, they are looking for something that is easy to spend, so Fiat is  the right choice. Because Fiat can be spent
anywhere, especially US Dollar almost all countries accept US Dollar. Meanwhile, not all countries accept crypto as payment. Therefore, if there
are politicians who say that crypto is widely used by illegal activities, it means that they are not doing their research properly, due to the fact that
Fiat is the most widely used for illegal activities.

[Janation]

One of the great features of cash is that it cannot be traced. It can facilitate transactions anytime and anywhere, and the official cannot review the flow of funds, so that the safety of funds can be guaranteed to the maximum extent, and it will naturally be loved by criminals.

That is true.

Other people think that Bitcoin will prefer cryptocurrencies because they thought that they can take advantage of the anonymity that it offers. They don't know that even there are a lot of scammers and hackers taking advantage of the anonymity of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, there are a lot of criminals taking advantage of the cash' untraceable and untrackable trait.

[kiki8899]

Many people believe that cryptocurrency can be used to launder money or evade accountability. In recent years, there have been cases of bribery through cryptocurrency in China. The impact of cryptocurrency in the criminal field is indeed worthy of attention.

[Ozero]

 A significant portion of criminals simply do not know how to use cryptocurrency well enough not to be tracked down. Therefore, they are afraid to make a mistake that could lead to either their detention or blocking of funds. Therefore, it is easier for them to use the old reliable methods with cash, which are almost impossible to trace if they have not been pre-marked or rewritten bill numbers.

[DrBeer]

Yes, and also - don't forget - a bundle of dollars is ALWAYS $ 10,000, and 1 cue ball is $ 35,000 today and $ 3,000 tomorrow. The question is - why do they need such risks? Of course, it can be the other way around, but this should be analyzed, studied, risked ... This obviously cannot be attributed to the properties of criminals

[jacafbiz]

Cash is very difficult to trace, do you know the huge amount of money that is being stolen everyday and also the vast amount of drug money that is being laundered everyday, very huge. If you have a dirty money, there are process to use to make it clean and this has been happening for years unlike Crypto that is just 10 years  and with better tracking technology, most of these Crypto can easily be traced unlike Fiat

[South Park]

A significant portion of criminals simply do not know how to use cryptocurrency well enough not to be tracked down. Therefore, they are afraid to make a mistake that could lead to either their detention or blocking of funds. Therefore, it is easier for them to use the old reliable methods with cash, which are almost impossible to trace if they have not been pre-marked or rewritten bill numbers.

I think this is another factor, bitcoin is not really anonymous and unlike bank accounts the whole transaction history is there for anyone to analyze, which is precisely what governments have done, and a single mistake could cost therm their freedom, so they do not want to deal with bitcoin and instead prefer to rely on their old methods of using cash for their transactions, but if governments keep limiting how you can use cash as they have been doing during the last decades then we could see a renewed interest of criminals in cryptocurrencies.

[torrantz]

Cash is very difficult to trace, do you know the huge amount of money that is being stolen everyday and also the vast amount of drug money that is being laundered everyday, very huge. If you have a dirty money, there are process to use to make it clean and this has been happening for years unlike Crypto that is just 10 years  and with better tracking technology, most of these Crypto can easily be traced unlike Fiat

Except monero or any privacy coins out there which even the US government is trying to find anyone who can crack the blockchain and gives out some reward.
Though it's true that paper money is really easy to launder, I mean there's reason why those drug dealers always try to use the USD when they make transactions it's because using this money is easy to buy anything and to launder. Crypto in the other hand, need to go through KYC process when trying to liquidate it, definitely not a convenient way for criminals.

[Jemzx00]

Cash is very difficult to trace, do you know the huge amount of money that is being stolen everyday and also the vast amount of drug money that is being laundered everyday, very huge. If you have a dirty money, there are process to use to make it clean and this has been happening for years unlike Crypto that is just 10 years  and with better tracking technology, most of these Crypto can easily be traced unlike Fiat

Cash is the very basic currency where anyone can access to which is also the reason why most of the criminals depends on it instead of crypto. Anyway, not just because that most of the transaction of crypto can be tracked is the reason why criminals don't widely used them. Crypto transaction tracking can be easily avoided through many ways such as mixing it which makes it harder for anyone to track the source and wallet it will be sent to. Rather for me the main reason why criminals prefer cash over crypto is due to the additional hassle it gives off and cashing it out tons of bitcoin would be too much of a trouble.