DOI: https://doi.org/10.

7341/20221842 JEL codes: F38, G15, H26, O16 / 45

Cryptocurrencies as a subject
of financial fraud
Małgorzata Kutera1
Abstract
PURPOSE: The main purpose of this paper was to identify the current scope of
research on cryptocurrencies as a subject of fraud. Detailed research questions
related to the determination of contemporary trends of the conducted research and
the definition of potential opportunities for further investigation of this topic. One of
the questions also concerned identifying the most common crimes committed using
cryptocurrencies. METHODOLOGY: The study is based on a systematic literature
review (SLR) of 57 publications available on the Scopus database. A bibliometric and
descriptive analysis of selected literature items was carried out. Then, vital thematic
clusters were separated, and an in-depth content analysis was performed. FINDINGS:
The detailed bibliometric and descriptive analysis showed that cryptocurrencies as
a subject of financial fraud are generally a new area of scientific research, although it
is developing quite intensively. The relatively small number of publications, compared
to other similar areas, also indicates that this topic has not yet been explored widely
by scientists, and many different research trends can be created in it. Ultimately, the
following key research areas were identified: types of cryptocurrency fraud, crime
detection methods, risks related to blockchain technology, money laundering, and
legal regulations regarding cryptocurrencies. It was also possible to identify that
money laundering is currently the most common fraud. However, it has been pointed
out that the second most frequent fraud is financial pyramids based on the Ponzi
scheme. IMPLICATIONS: The paper clearly presents the main research trends on
using cryptocurrencies in criminal activities. At the same time, it was emphasized
that, compared to other research areas, this topic is relatively new. Therefore, there is
a wide possibility of exploring not only existing but also undiscovered research trends.
In addition, key types of fraud in economic practice have been identified, which is
particularly important for financial market participants. It was clearly indicated which
transactions bear the highest risk. It is also worth paying attention to the critical
timeliness of the topic, as the scale of crimes involving cryptocurrencies has recently
1 Małgorzata Kutera, PhD., Assistant Professor at the Jagiellonian University, Institute of Economics, Finance and
Management, Prof. S. Łojasiewicza 4, 30-348 Krakow, Poland, e-mail: malgorzata.kutera@uj.edu.pl (ORCID: https://orcid.
org/0000-0002-7029-2454).

Received 3 August 2022; Revised 18 September 2022, 9 October 2022; Accepted 20 October 2022.
This is an open access paper under the CC BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode).

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been growing rapidly. The study confirms the insufficient scope of legal regulations,
which are not able to strengthen the security of economic transactions adequately.
Therefore, it can be a clear indication for the governments of individual countries
or international institutions for further efficient changes to the law. ORIGINALITY
AND VALUE: The contribution of this study is threefold. It is one of the first research
papers showing the results of a systematic literature review (SLR) combined with
a bibliographic and in-depth analysis of the content of publications in this field.
During the work, the VOSviewer software was also used, which enabled objective
identification of the main thematic clusters based on the occurrences and link
strength of keywords included in the publications. Secondly, the key types of fraud
have been identified that, at the same time, cause the most significant financial
loss. This allowed for the establishing of directions for further research, which have
profound practical implications for market participants. Some of them relate to the
need to develop and implement modern computer applications, allowing for the
detection of a wider range of emerging abuses.
Keywords: cryptocurrency, bitcoin, blockchain, financial frauds, economic crime,
money laundering, Ponzi scheme, financial pyramid, systematic literature review

INTRODUCTION

Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency to be created by Satoshi Nakamoto in

2009. Its introduction to the economic market completely revolutionized many
existing mechanisms related to the financial market. Some changes related
to entire foundations, i.e., defining new economic concepts or changing
the current perception of selected macro- and microeconomic processes.
The key terms in this context are “cryptocurrency” and “blockchain” related
to new technologies. In short, it can be concluded that the first is a generic
term for a virtual or digital currency that takes the form of coins or tokens.
Cryptocurrencies use blockchain technology (Al-Saqaf & Seidler, 2017). In turn,
blockchain is defined as a chained data structure that combines blocks of data
and information in chronological order and records the blocks in encrypted
form as a distributed ledger that cannot be tampered with or forged. It uses
timestamps to identify and record each transaction, so the data are traceable,
thereby preventing irreversible modifications to data or information (Lu, 2019).
So cryptocurrencies do not require a central authority to validate and settle
transactions. Instead, they use only cryptography (and an internal incentive
system) to control transactions and manage the supply. Payments are validated
by a decentralized network (Gandal, Hamrick, Moore, & Oberman, 2018).
From the very beginning, the essence of blockchain and related
cryptocurrencies has been the subject of research by scientists. It is possible
to identify many research trends by analyzing the potential application
areas of the new technology. Blockchain can be used to decentralize the
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financial system (Chen & Bellavitis, 2020; Patel, Migliavacca & Oriani, 2022;
Sánchez, 2022), to create new forms of nonfungible token (NFT) investments
(Regner, Schweizer, & Urbach, 2019), and finally to implement smart contracts
(Cong & He, 2019; Hughes, Park, Kietzmann, & Archer-Brown, 2019; Rozario &
Vasarhelyi, 2018), which are systems that automatically control digital assets
according to arbitrary prespecified rules. There is also an increasing trend
of its mass application in accounting and financial reporting of enterprises
(Schmitz & Leoni, 2019; Pimentel & Boulianne, 2020; Kokina, Mancha, &
Pachamanova, 2017). Therefore, further intensive changes in economic
systems caused by this invention should be expected.
Particularly noteworthy is distributed, decentralized, and reliable
mechanism of cryptocurrencies, thanks to which they have become a global
trading platform (Lin, Wu, Hsu, Tu & Liao, 2019). Unfortunately, these
same features have also become attractive to criminals (Fletcher, Larkin &
Corbet, 2021). In addition, it is worth mentioning the lack of appropriate
legal regulations and related supervisory activities on the part of domestic
or international institutions (Irwin & Dawson, 2019; Al-Tawil & Younies,
2020; Lui & Ryder, 2021). All this contributes to the growing use of the
cryptocurrency market by criminals financing terrorism, money laundering,
and other economic abuses. Cryptocurrencies are under constant threat
of attack. Numerous researchers have conducted studies to document and
combat crimes, such as:

• Ponzi schemes (Vasek & Moore, 2015; Esoimeme, 2018; Bartoletti,

Pes, & Serusi, 2018; Zhang, Kang, Dai, Chen, & Zhu, 2021; Wang,
Cheng, Zheng, Yang, & Zhu, 2021);
• money laundering (Levin, O’Brien, & Zuberi, 2015; Rivera, 2019;
Hendrickson & Luther, 2022; Bartoletti et al., 2018; Barth, Herath,
& Xu, 2020; Broadhead, 2018; van Wegberg, Oerlemans, & van
Deventer, 2018; Dupuis & Gleason, 2021; Wronka, 2022);
• mining botnets (Huang et al., 2014; Konoth et al., 2018) and the theft
of “brainwallets” (Vasek, Bonneau, Castellucci, Keith, & Moore, 2016).

Thousands of new cryptocurrencies have been introduced in recent

years. It is estimated that over 5,100 such assets are currently in operation
(Goforth, 2021). The scale and variety of abuses related to it are also growing.
The US Federal Trade Commission published a report that presented the latest
data on the scale of fraud in the cryptocurrency market (FTC, 2021). It shows
that from October 2020 to the end of March 2021, almost 7,000 people fell
victim to virtual currency fraud, which resulted in a total loss of more than $
80 million. For comparison, this sum is nearly 1000% higher than the amount

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recorded in the corresponding period a year earlier. The report presented by

FTC also shows that the median value of the losses suffered was $ 1,900. Global
data on the topic can be found in Chainanalysis reports. According to the
latest information, the value of frauds and scams in the crypto-assets market
in 2021 amounted to $ 14 billion, i.e., almost twice as high ($ 7.8 billion) as
the year before (Chainanalysis, 2022). It is also worth paying attention to the
scale of money laundering by use of this market. Cybercriminals laundered $
8.6 billion worth of cryptocurrency in 2021. That represents a 30% increase
in money laundering activity over 2020. Cybercriminals have laundered over
$ 33 billion worth of cryptocurrency since 2017.
As presented above, the problem is beginning to grow and it significantly
affects the security of economic transactions on a global scale. This has been
pointed out by both ordinary market participants as well as the governments
of individual countries. We are seeing a dynamic increase in global financial
flows that are not under any effective control. In connection with the
above, it is highly desirable to identify the degree of development and the
scope of the current research on the cryptocurrency market in the context
of their use for criminal activities. A preliminary analysis of the literature
on the subject indicates an existing research gap. There are some studies
that present an analysis of the literature on the subject to date (Trozze et
al., 2022). The authors have made a scoping review of academic research
and grey literature on cryptocurrency fraud. When selecting scientific
positions, the Google Scholar search engine was used, and for the remaining
publications – the Google search engine. The main purpose of the study was
to identify the types of crimes committed with the use of cryptocurrencies.
Hence, only those items that contained a description of at least one example
of fraud (as of November 2020) were analyzed. As a result of this work, 29
different types of cryptocurrency fraud included in scientific publications
and 32 types discussed in the grey literature were distinguished. However, it
should be mentioned that only the identification of the types of fraud using
cryptocurrencies is insufficient. It is worth making a broader analysis of the
literature on the subject in order to define also other areas of research in this
field. This article takes that perspective.
The main purpose of the study is, therefore, to identify the current scope
of research on cryptocurrencies as a subject of fraud. It will also allow the
definition of potential opportunities for further investigation of this topic. To
the best of the author’s knowledge, it is one of the first studies showing the
results of a systematic literature review (SLR) combined with a bibliographic
analysis and an in-depth analysis of the content of publications in this field.
Detailed research questions are presented later in the study.

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This article is structured as follows. The next part deals with the general
theoretical background of the subject, with particular emphasis on research
conducted in similar areas. Then the research methodology is presented.
In this section, research questions are posed. The process of selecting
publications for their systematic review is explained in detail, as well as the
approach to bibliometric and descriptive analysis. The basic parameters
used to distinguish thematic clusters are also presented in this part of the
study. The following section shows the results of a systematic review of the
literature, including the findings of an in-depth analysis of the content of
individual publications. They provide the basis for a discussion on the context
of the specific research questions. The last part contains conclusions and
presents potential directions for further research in this field.

METHODOLOGY

This study adopted a systematic approach to conducting a literature review

to minimize bias and lend scientific value to its results. Systematic literature
review (SLR) is a widely recognized scientific method used in social sciences,
including management, economics, and finance (Hiebl, 2021; Simsek, Fox, &
Heavey, 2021; Sharma & Bansal, 2020). According to the guidelines included
in the literature on SLR, the study was divided into the following stages
(Jesson, Matheson & Lacey, 2011; Booth, Sutton, & Papaioannou, 2016):

• defining research questions;

• searching for the literature;
• selection of publications using exclusion and inclusion criteria;
• preparation of the final database;
• bibliometric analysis;
• content analysis;
• discussing the results.

At the beginning, three main research questions were defined that set
the direction and scope of the systematic literature review, especially in
content analysis. The following questions were asked:

RQ1) What are the current state and the primary considerations of
research relating to cryptocurrencies as a subject of fraud?
RQ2) What are the most common crimes committed with the use of
cryptocurrencies?
RQ3) What could be the future research trends related to cryptocurrencies
and financial fraud?
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A systematic literature review is crucial in responding to RQ1 and RQ3.

In turn, RQ2 is also related to the practical implications of the subject of the
study. From the methodological point of view, one of the essential elements
of a systematic literature review is an appropriately conducted process
of selecting a research sample. The individual steps of eliminating and
including in the final set of publications should be based on clear criteria and
performed in the correct order. Selected literature items indicate different
sampling activities (Sharma & Bansal, 2020; Denyer & Tranfield, 2009; Gaur
& Kumar, 2018). However, as a rule, three standard main stages can be
distinguished in them:

• identification – it consists in determining a potential group of

publications relating to a predefined research problem (Vassar et al.,
2017; Booth et al., 2016);
• screening – application of various criteria for inclusion and exclusion
of selected items to the final research sample, relating mainly to the
substantive content, including also the qualitative assessment of the
publication based on content analysis (Booth et al., 2016; Pussegoda
et al., 2017; Briner & Denyer, 2012);
• final review sample – determining the definitive set of literature items
on the subject being the basis for a detailed analysis from the point
of view of the research questions posed. In this respect, there are
several guidelines for the minimum dataset size. In the context of the
analyzed issue, the minimum sample size should be 50 items (Short,
Sharma, Lumpkin & Pearson, 2016; Hiebl, 2021).

A diagram of Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-

Analyses (PRISMA) was used to present the different stages of determining
the final set of scientific publications covered by the analysis. This model
is one of the most frequently used tools that regulates the sequence of
actions performed during the sampling process (Pussegoda et al., 2017;
Page et al., 2021; Liberati et al., 2009). Scopus was selected as the key
database for the systematic literature review. Before deciding on the choice
of the final database, trial tests were also carried out for other databases
of scientific publications, especially the Web of Science and ProQuest.
However, preliminary results of searching these databases using comparable
criteria indicated a smaller number of publications and they included many
duplicates. Therefore, it was decided to use Scopus, where the scope of the
publication was the largest. The time range of the published scientific items
was not limited due to the relatively new subject of scientific research, i.e.,
cryptocurrencies. An interesting aspect was also the identification of the
oldest publications in this field.
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The first stage of searching the database and selecting items was
determining the keywords appropriate for the research subject. This
collection includes cryptocurrencies and crypto assets (crypto *), bitcoin,
Ethereum, fraud, crime, scam, and abuse. The first four keywords generally
refer to cryptocurrencies and their two most popular and longest-functioning
types in the market. The following four keywords are a combination of the
most common terms related to financial fraud in the literature. The “Article
title, abstract, keywords” area was selected as the reference database for the
search. As a result of the database search, 841 publications meeting these
criteria were identified.
Then, the subject area had to be narrowed down due to its substantive
nature. In this regard, two sites were selected: “business, management,
and accounting” and “economics, econometrics, and finance.” The scope
of the publication was 106 items. Another criterion was to narrow the area
of analysis to four types of documents: “article,” “conference paper,” “book
chapter,” and “book.” The database identified 102 publications. Of these, all
articles still in print were discarded, and the focus was solely on the completed
items. As a result of the database search, 95 scientific publications were
finally included in the collection, and the full search criteria were as follows:

(TITLE-ABS-KEY (crypto*) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY (bitcoin) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY

(ethereum) AND TITLE-ABS-KEY (fraud) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY (crime) OR TITLE-
ABS-KEY (scam) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY (abuse)) AND (LIMIT-TO (SUBJAREA ,
“BUSI”) OR LIMIT-TO (SUBJAREA , “ECON”)) AND (LIMIT-TO (DOCTYPE ,
“ar”) OR LIMIT-TO (DOCTYPE , “cp”) OR LIMIT-TO (DOCTYPE , “ch”) OR
LIMIT-TO (DOCTYPE , “bk”)) AND (LIMIT-TO (PUBSTAGE , “final”)).

The next stage was verifying the titles and abstracts of all 95 bibliographic
items to determine which of them relate to the research questions posed.
The mainstream research was supposed to concern cryptocurrencies in the
context of fraud committed. At this stage, a complete double analysis of
titles and abstracts was performed to eliminate the risk of confusion. Thirty-
eight publications were rejected. For research purposes, the final collection
was 57 literature items. The eliminated publications mainly concerned the
possible innovative applications of blockchain technology related to the
cryptocurrency market in other areas of life (medicine, education).
The summary of the entire process of selecting the research sample is the
following PRISMA diagram presenting the various stages of the elimination of
bibliographic items (Figure 1).

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IDENTIFICATION
- records identified from Scopus n = 841

SCREENING
- records excluded by general subject area (only
"business, management and accounting" and
"economics, econometrics and finance") n = 735
- records excluded by type of document (only
"article", "conference paper", "book chapter" and
"book" - final version) n = 11
- records excluded by double content analysis of titles
and abstracts n = 38

FINAL REVIEW SAMPLE

- number of records for in-depth analysis n = 57

Figure 1. PRISMA diagram – selection of the research sample

In the next stage, bibliometric and descriptive analyses were made

to present the primary data on the literature on this subject. The key
verification criteria concerned publication trends in particular years, types
of these publications, the most popular journals, authors, their affiliation,
and countries of origin. The publications were also analyzed in terms of their
levels of citation. Using the tools built into the Scopus database, a ranking
of the most frequently cited literature items from the collection included in
the final analysis was prepared. In this way, it was possible to identify critical
publications that were most often included by other authors dealing with
similar issues.
The last element was the in-depth content analysis. The starting point
for organizing the substantive criteria of this analysis was the verification of
potential clusters. Therefore, a network analysis was performed using the
VOSviewer 1.6.18 Software. The data was extracted directly from Scopus,
including all necessary information (author, title, abstract, keywords,
publication year, affiliation, etc.), and then imported to VOSviewer to create

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the co-occurrence network to identify the main aspects of the discussion. The
most crucial element in this respect was the analysis of the co-occurrence
network of keywords to distinguish clusters. The key parameters used to
define the network of connections are presented in Table 1.

Table 1. Essential parameters for identifying the co-occurrence network of keywords

Parameter Settings
Type of analysis Co-occurrence
Unit of analysis All keywords
Counting method Full counting
Minimum number of occurrences of a keyword 5
Number of keywords to be selected 10

Subsequently, each literature item within the individual clusters was

read, and an in-depth content analysis was performed. A narrative approach
was used during this verification, and significant substantive findings relating
to the research questions were presented.

RESULTS

The first element is a detailed bibliometric and descriptive analysis. The

subject of cryptocurrencies in the context of crime is relatively new compared
to other research areas related to management, economics, and finance.
Figure 2 presents the evolution of the number of publications in this field. As
mentioned above, no filters related to time constraints were assumed when
searching the Scopus database. The results, therefore, present the full range
of literature on the subject.
One of the analysis’s most interesting elements was identifying the
oldest publications on cryptocurrencies used as a potential fraud tool. The
above chart shows that in 2014 one such item was published. After that,
only individual publications were identified over the next several years. It
was only in 2018 that higher growth dynamics can be observed – eleven
such items were published then. A similar trend continued in the following
years (12, 15, and 12 publications in 2021). The chart does not present data
from 2022, as the information does not include the whole year and it would
distort the conclusions from the comparative analysis. This implies that
after the first cryptocurrency was introduced to the market, at least a few
years had to pass before it became the object of interest to scientists. It is
also clear that in the early years, cryptocurrencies were not identified as
potential financial crime tools.
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Figure 2. Number of publications in respective years

Another aspect of bibliometric verification is the publication type and

the most famous journals. The data show that among the entire group of 57
literature items, the most significant number is of scientific articles (36) and
publications in conference materials (14). Trace amounts refer to chapters
in books or complete monographs. A summary of these data is presented
in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Types of publications

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The publications appeared in a total of 42 different journals and conference

materials. The analysis showed that articles in this field are most often
published in the Journal of Money Laundering Control, which immediately
suggests the essence of the research issue and the most common type of
fraud in the context of cryptocurrency trading. A total of 10 publications were
identified in this journal. The following items are publications in conference
materials relating to the IEEE International Conference on Blockchain and
Cryptocurrency, ICBC 2020, and four more journals. Two elements of the
literature on the subject were identified. The rest are single publications in
36 different journals. It is immediately noticeable that there is one top place
dealing with the issue of cryptocurrencies in the context of economic fraud.
Table 2 presents the primary sources of publications in this field.

Table 2. Most common journals

Title Number of articles
Journal of Money Laundering Control 10
IEEE International Conference on Blockchain and 3
Cryptocurrency, ICBC 2020
Research in International Business and Finance 2
Journal of Financial Crime 2
Journal of Advanced Research in Law and Economics 2
International Journal of Recent Technology and Engineering 2

Considering the number of publications issued by individual authors, it

is difficult to identify a leading scientist specializing in this subject. Only five
people with two publications on using cryptocurrencies in financial frauds
can be distinguished – Esoimeme, Falker, Moore, Teichmann, and Wronka.
It is worth pointing out that all of their scientific articles are about money
laundering with crypto-assets and have been published in the Journal of
Money Laundering Control. Most researchers dealing with this subject come
from the United States, Great Britain, and China. Due to the large dispersion
of publications issued by individual authors, it is also impossible to indicate
specific research centers related to the affiliation that would play a leading
role in scientific research on this subject.
Table 3 presents the ranking of publications from their citation point of
view. It includes all items for which more than 10 citations were identified. In
total, for the entire set of 57 items, 921 citations were established in other
scientific publications, of which 11 articles did not receive any citations in the
analyzed period of 2018-2022.

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Table 3. Most cited publications

Number of
Title Authors
citations
Price manipulation in the Bitcoin Gandal N., Hamrick J.T., 259
ecosystem Moore T., Oberman T.
Blockchain technology innovations Ahram T., Sargolzaei A., 227
Sargolzaei S., Daniels J.,
Amaba B.
Data mining for detecting bitcoin Ponzi Bartoletti M., Pes B., Serusi 109
schemes S.
Bitcoin money laundering: mixed van Wegberg R., Oerlemans 32
results?: An explorative study on J.J., van Deventer O.
money laundering of cybercrime
proceeds using bitcoin
News sentiment in the cryptocurrency Rognone L., Hyde S., Zhang 28
market: An empirical comparison with S.S.
Forex
An Evaluation of Bitcoin Address Lin Y.J., Wu P.W., Hsu C.H., Tu 25
Classification based on Transaction I.P., Liao S.W.
History Summarization
Multi-Class Bitcoin-Enabled Service Toyoda K., Ohtsuki T., 24
Identification Based on Transaction Mathiopoulos P.T.
History Summarization
Bitcoin, life coin, name coin: The legal Kirillova E.A., Pavlyuk 24
nature of virtual currency A.V., Mikhaylova I.A.,
Zulfugarzade T.E., Zenin S.S.
Underpricing in the cryptocurrency Felix T.H., von Eije H. 22
world: evidence from initial coin
offerings
The contemporary cybercrime Broadhead S. 13
ecosystem: A multi-disciplinary
overview of the state of affairs and
developments
Is bitcoin a waste of resources? Williamson S. 12
Tracing Cryptocurrency Scams: Phillips R., Wilder H. 12
Clustering Replicated Advance-Fee and
Phishing Websites
Pricing Efficiency and Arbitrage in the Lee S., Meslmani N.E., 11
Bitcoin Spot and Futures Markets Switzer L.N.
Countering money laundering and Fletcher E., Larkin C., Corbet 10
terrorist financing: A case for bitcoin S.
regulation

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When analyzing the above results, three leading items of the most
significant substantive importance with more than 100 citations should be
identified. They mainly relate to manipulating the bitcoin exchange rate or its
use to build a financial pyramid (Ponzi scheme).
The next stage of the systematic literature review is the in-depth content
analysis of the collection of publications from the point of view of achieving
the main goal and the research questions posed. The starting point for this
analysis was the identification of potential substantive clusters. As mentioned
earlier, VOSviewer Software was used to create the co-occurrence network
using all keywords to identify the main aspects of the publications.
As part of the selection process presented in the methodology section,
a total of 322 keywords were identified, of which only 10 met the assumed
criteria. The number of occurrences and total link strength for the most
important keywords are presented in Table 4.

Table 4. Occurrences and link strength of keywords

Keyword Occurrences Total link strength
bitcoin 30 53
blockchain 19 52
cryptocurrency 21 44
crime 11 30
chromium compounds 5 18
Ethereum 6 18
money laundering 10 16
block - chain 5 15
electronic money 5 13
cryptocurrencies 6 7

Generally, three clusters focused on the following keywords were

identified:

• bitcoin – electronic money, cryptocurrencies;

• blockchain – crime, chromium compounds, Ethereum, block – chain;
• cryptocurrency – money laundering.

The results are presented in Figure 4, which shows network visualization.

In addition, the density visualization in Figure 5 was also included to provide
a complete presentation of the selected clusters.

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Figure 4. Co-occurrence analysis of the authors’ keywords

Source: own study using VOSviewer 1.6.18.

Figure 5. Clusters of the authors’ keywords

Source: own study using VOSviewer 1.6.18.

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Cluster “Bitcoin”
Bitcoin as the oldest cryptocurrency and various aspects related to its
functioning, is by far the most frequently discussed topic in the literature
on the subject. Many authors emphasize that the perception of bitcoin has
significantly evolved and is now a normally functioning asset in financial
markets. Therefore, Teo and Low (2018) pointed out that it is necessary
to redefine the concept of “money” as an asset and define its protection
principles. They showed various legal aspects related to defining this concept
and the resulting risks in investment practice. It was especially emphasized
that the main threat in this regard is hacking.
A large part of the publication shows examples of possible illegal use
of bitcoin for various crimes, including money laundering (Esoimeme, 2018;
Bartoletti et al., 2018; Barth et al., 2020; Broadhead, 2018, van Wegberg et
al., 2018). Esoimeme (2018) indicates that bitcoin creates hitherto unknown
opportunities for marketing funds from illegal sources, much more significant
than traditional money transfers. For example, the Mavrodi Mondial
Movement (MMM) pyramid scheme operating in recent years in Nigeria and
the risks associated with new payment methods are given.
Ponzi scheme-based financial pyramids are one of the most commonly
used frauds in the context of bitcoin, with the longest tradition in the
market. It is noted by Bartoletti, Pes, and Serusi (2018), Zhang, Kang, Dai,
Chen, and Zhu (2021), Wang, Cheng, Zheng, Yang, and Zhu (2021). They
build a network of investors, where the profits paid to the first participants
of the system come from payments made by subsequent investors and
not from the funds generated by the system. The authors emphasize that
immediately after the introduction of bitcoin in 2009, there were signs of
building financial pyramids with its use. At the same time, they proposed
various techniques for detecting bitcoin addresses directly related to Ponzi
schemes, allowing early identification of this type of fraud. The method
involves experimenting with different machine learning algorithms and
evaluating their effectiveness using standard validation protocols and
performance metrics. In turn, Wang, Cheng, Zheng, Yang, and Zhu (2021)
proposed a method for detecting pyramid schemes based on oversampling
Long Short-Term Memory. Account features and code features are extracted
from contract call information and contract codes, and the two components
are combined to detect Ponzi scheme smart contracts.
Analyzing bitcoin addresses and their associated transaction types is
also of interest to Lin, Wu, Hsu, Tu, and Liao (2019). They point out that the
ability to identify addresses associated with criminal activities is becoming
the most critical issue in the cryptocurrency network. They experimented

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with building a classification model for detecting abnormality of bitcoin

network addresses. These features include various high orders of moments
of transaction time, which summarizes the transaction history in an efficient
way. This allows the addresses associated with the scams to be identified.
A modern tool for detecting suspicious bitcoin accounts was also proposed
by Sun, Xiong, Yiu, and Lam (2019), who developed the BitVis system. With
it, cryptocurrency investors can easily filter transactions on demand, interact
with trading networks to find helpful information, and analyze the behavior
of bitcoin accounts. The mechanism may also be successfully used by
authorities regulating financial markets.
A tool popularly known as honeypot (Torres, Baden & State, 2020) can
also play a similar role. This particular trap is aimed at detecting attempts
at the unauthorized use of the system or obtaining data. Most often,
it consists of a computer, data, and a separate area of the local network,
which pretends to be a real network but are isolated from it and adequately
secured. From the outside, this construction looks like it contains information
or a resource that could be a potential target of a cybercriminal. Another
publication that presents the potential possibilities of preventing fraud
with bitcoin is the study on the innovative solution proposed by Toyoda,
Ohtsuki, and Mathiopoulos (2018). Scientists implemented a multi-faceted
scheme for identifying services based on bitcoin addresses by analyzing the
history of transactions. It allows distinguishing seven significant services:
regular exchange, faucet, gambling, investment scam, marketplace, mining
pool, and mixer. The model provides 72% accuracy and it has been tested
on over 26,000 bitcoin addresses. In turn, Lorenz, Silva, Aparício, Ascensão,
and Bizarro (2020) conducted experiments to detect illegal activity in a set
of bitcoin transactions. They studied the detection ability of the machine
learning model and proved that unsupervised anomaly detection methods
have poor results.
Interesting research in the context of bitcoin has also been presented
by Barth, Herath, and Xu (2020). These scientists were looking for answers
as to whether, and to what extent, ethical aspects affect the valuation of
cryptocurrencies. To this end, they measured the intensity of the use of ethical
and unethical words in the discussion of bitcoin on Twitter and its valuation.
They discovered that the frequency of an unethical discussion about bitcoin
is negatively associated with its price. In contrast, the frequency of an ethical
debate is positively associated with its price.

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Cluster “Blockchain”
The publications belonging to this cluster mainly concern blockchain as a new
technology covering, among other things, the cryptocurrency market and
they draw attention to various associated risks. It is assumed that this solution
completely revolutionized the existing digital world and brought an entirely
new perspective on its security, flexibility, and efficiency (Srivasthav, Maddali,
& Vigneswaran, 2021). On the one hand, it is emphasized that blockchain
allows for a completely different dimension of transactions or exchange of
goods and services. However, its further development depends to a large
extent on regulatory changes protecting against cybercrimes and financial
frauds (Ahram, Sargolzaei, Daniels & Amaba, 2017).
The WannaCry ransomware attack that took place in May 2017 was
given as an example of a new type of crime involving blockchain-based
cryptocurrency payment transactions (Turner, McCombie, & Uhlmann, 2019).
It was a global hacking attack that involved computers running the Microsoft
Windows operating system by encrypting data and demanding ransom
payments in the bitcoin cryptocurrency. At the same time, the authors
developed a model for collecting and analyzing data related to inflows and
outflows of bitcoin-related ransomware transactions. Bitcoin transactions
form graph networks and enable the construction of a target network model
for collecting, analyzing, and sharing intelligence with multiple stakeholders.
It would therefore be possible to counter such attacks more quickly and
effectively in the future.
Karapapas, Pittaras, Fotiou, and Polyzos (2020) draw attention to the
increased risk of hacker attacks using blockchain technology. The authors
clearly showed how technology could be used to launch ransomware
campaigns as a service. They proved that criminals could transact with
related parties and victims without revealing their identity and with multiple
privacy guarantees. The scale of cyber-attacks in cryptocurrency trading and
the use of technology was also the subject of research by Caporale, Kang, and
Spagnolo (2020). They thoroughly analyzed hacking attacks on the four most
popular cryptocurrencies. They confirmed their significant negative financial
consequences and, at the same time, pointed to the need to increase research
in this field. They considered the precise understanding of the mechanisms of
cyber-attacks to be crucial in the fight against this phenomenon.
With the development of blockchain and the cryptocurrency market, the
scale of abuse related to the simple theft of these assets has also increased.
Only the tools used by criminals have changed. These scams operate on visually
similar but seemingly unrelated websites advertised by malicious social media
accounts. With the help of such websites and social media accounts, they

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often perpetrate fraud or act as phishing sites. For example, Phillips and Wilder
(2020) analyzed selected data online and based on blockchain technology.
Using the clustering technique, they developed a typology of prepayment and
phishing scams. It turned out that the same entities carried out very similar
scams in their online activities and using blockchain.

Cluster “Cryptocurrency”
The vast majority of publications in this field see the problem of using
cryptocurrencies for various crimes, including primarily money laundering.
Levin, O’Brien, and Zuberi (2015) explicitly point out that until recently, the
bitcoin market was considered a “virtual Wild West for drug dealers and
other criminals.” At the same time, they pointed out that the support for this
currency is constantly growing, and it has become a global virtual asset. The
regulations governing this market do not keep up with the practice and seem
unclear. The authors cite examples of American administrative proceedings
against operators of platforms on which cryptocurrency trading is carried out
and analyze the current state of legal regulations in this field in the USA.
The issue of appropriate regulation was also raised by Irwin and Dawson
(2019), who specifically dealt with the law of payment methods. The authors
identified the current legal status in Australia, Europe, and America and, at
the same time, indicated potential limitations in their application on a global
scale. In addition, they highlighted the ineffectiveness of the implemented
solutions, which also have a negative impact on the possibility of prosecuting
criminals. One of the reasons they mentioned is the lack of a legal, universally
binding definition of bitcoin.
It is also emphasized that countries that give up cash transactions
entirely are not much less vulnerable to money laundering crimes (Rivera,
2019; Hendrickson & Luther, 2022). In this case, virtual transactions,
including those related to cryptocurrencies, are used on a larger scale. After
all, popular cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are close substitutes for cash. In
addition, they offer a higher level of financial anonymity and thus allow
transactions with a lower risk of detection than traditional digital payments.
Consequently, all efforts to eliminate cash from circulation strongly drive
criminals towards cryptocurrencies.
Experts indicate that a substantial restriction of trading in cryptocurrencies
is not the solution for the future either, because they appeared as a natural
consequence of the intensive development of technology. However, it is
essential to introduce global legal regulations limiting their criminal use
(Al-Tawil & Younies, 2020). Liechtenstein is quite an active country in this
context (Teichmann & Falker, 2020; 2021). Particular guidelines have recently

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been introduced regulating this market (“The Liechtenstein Blockchain Act”),

preventing money laundering above all. New regulations were also
introduced relatively quickly in Malta (Buttigieg & Sapiano, 2020). Teichmann
and Falker (2020) also presented specific methods used by people involved in
money laundering using crypto assets. The qualitative research included 10
presumed money-laundering people and 18 anti-money-laundering experts.
Quite an exciting publication was prepared by Dupuis and Gleason (2021).
The authors presented the possibilities and limitations of the cryptocurrency
market as a place for money laundering. They performed an in-depth analysis
of the currently available exchange mechanisms of these assets in light of the
existing legal regulations. The illegal use of cryptocurrencies was investigated
through Kane’s regulatory dialectical paradigm and it eventually identified six
potential tools used by criminals.
A similar topic was taken up by Lui and Ryder (2021). They classified the
mechanisms of using cryptocurrencies in financial crimes and analyzed the
relevant legal provisions in Great Britain. There has also been an attempt to
identify the current loopholes in the regulatory systems that are most often
exploited by fraudsters. The authors emphasized that, despite the efforts of
the Financial Action Taskforce, the legal system does not keep up with the
development of technology, and harmonized global actions are needed in
this regard.
Potential money laundering techniques using cryptocurrencies were
also presented by Wronka (2022). He classified the most common fraud
mechanisms and patterns and highlighted the changing cryptocurrency
market that brings new opportunities for fraud. The author also analyzed
the extent to which EU and national regulations can counteract this
phenomenon, bearing in mind the security of the financial market. In
verifying domestic law, he dealt mainly with the legal provisions in force in
Germany, Great Britain, and Switzerland. Findings suggested that relatively
lenient laws exist in Switzerland and Germany, while Great Britain has the
most stringent regulations.
The directions of changes in the law in the context of the security of
cryptocurrency trading were also presented by Fletcher, Larkin, and Corbet
(2021). They performed an in-depth analysis of the regulations in the
American market. The authors distinctly indicated that bitcoin and other
crypto-assets should be classified as a technology with financial components
and regulated as a part of the growing FinTech industry. In turn, Riley (2021)
reviewed current Chinese law, with particular emphasis on the new Chinese
Cryptography Law.

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DISCUSSION

The bibliometric and descriptive analysis summary presented above made

it possible to partially answer the first research question regarding the state
of scientific publications on cryptocurrencies as a subject of fraud. There has
been an increased interest in this topic for several years.
The detailed content analysis of the literature items made it possible to
indicate the main research trends, identify the most frequently committed
frauds with the use of cryptocurrencies and define future research directions,
which are closely related to the research questions posed. The starting point
was the identification of three keyword-based clusters. The verification of
the publications included in individual groups indicated some thematic
specialization.
Within the bitcoin cluster, the most significant number of studies presenting
various types of crimes committed with its use and possible techniques for
detecting these abuses were identified. Some publications also referred to the
need to redefine critical concepts related to cash turnover or ethics. Cluster
“blockchain” clearly focuses on new technology and the resulting risks. On
the other hand, the group of studies in the field of cryptocurrencies mainly
refers to issues related to money laundering and changes in international
and national legal regulations regarding cryptocurrency trading. Figure 6
summarizes the identified vital research trends.

Types of Risks related to

Crime detection
cryptocurrency blockchain
methods
fraud technology

Legal regulations
Money laundering regarding
cryptocurrencies

Figure 6. Main research areas in scientific publications

The two main types of economic crime related to the cryptocurrency

market are money laundering and financial pyramids based on the Ponzi
scheme. All authors point out that this market offers new and unprecedented
possibilities for transferring funds from illegal sources. This is facilitated by

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certain anonymization of transactions and the lack of clear legal regulations.

As soon as the formalized framework for the organized cryptocurrency
trading market, including mainly bitcoin at first, emerged, criminals found
new opportunities for money laundering. This type of abuse is by far the
most common in the cryptocurrency context (Esoimeme, 2018; Levin et al.,
2015; Rivera, 2019; Hendrickson & Luther, 2022; Bartoletti et al., 2018; Barth
et al., 2020; Broadhead, 2018; van Wegberg et al., 2018; Dupuis & Gleason,
2021; Wronka 2022).
However, attention should be paid to the second, quite a strong trend of
publications on the use of the cryptocurrency market to build Ponzi schemes
(Esoimeme, 2018; Bartoletti et al., 2018; Zhang et al., 2021; Wang et al., 2021).
The crimes of the financial pyramid have been known in the market for many
years and they have always aroused a lot of emotions, mainly due to the
scale of actions of selected fraudsters and the wide range of victims. The very
name of the type of fraud comes from Charles Ponzi, an Italian immigrant
living in the United States. In 1920, he built the first financial pyramid (based
on the international reply coupons IRC). Since then, this type of fraud has
systematically appeared in the market. One of the largest frauds of this type
in the economic history of the world is the financial pyramid of Bernard L.
Madoff, a well-known American stock exchange player. The number of victims
exceeded fourteen thousand people and the losses were estimated at tens
of billions of dollars (Kutera, 2016). The cryptocurrency market offers new
opportunities in this regard, although the essence of the crime has remained
unchanged. It was presented in detail by Wang, Cheng, Zheng, Yang, and Zhu
(2021), who described the fraud mechanism using the example of PlusToken.
However, there are more examples: the OneCoin-based pyramid operating in
2014-2017 or BitConnect (2016-2018).
Another area of ​​research is the methods of detecting cryptocurrency
scams. Most researchers here focus on various ways of verifying bitcoin
addresses and identifying those that bear the hallmarks of criminal activity
(Bartoletti et al., 2018; Lin et al., 2019; Toyoda et al., 2018). Other proposals
relate to machine learning models (Wang et al., 2021; Lorenz et al., 2020)
or completely original solutions (Sun et al., 2019; Torres et al., 2020). In this
context, everyone emphasizes that the capabilities of blockchain technology
can also contribute to a more effective fight against economic crime related
to cryptocurrencies. This trend of research also applies to the IT sector, where
you can see a growing number of publications describing the use of so-called
smart contracts. Therefore, it seems that the subject of creating various
application tools supporting fraud detection in the blockchain environment
will be a separate and stringent research stream.

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The analysis of the content of publications regarding various risks arising

from the use of blockchain technology and their potential impact on the
cryptocurrency market showed that the main problem is hacker attacks.
Selected studies presented examples of such situations and identified the
scale of financial losses (Turner et al., 2019; Broadhead, 2018). The most
significant illegal acquisitions of cryptocurrencies as a result of imperfect
information systems took place, for example, on Mt. Gox, where the size of
the financial damage was estimated at $ 473 million. Other examples include
the hacking attacks on the Bitfinex exchange in August 2016 (total losses
amounted to $ 72 million), PolyNetwork in August 2021 ($ 600 million), and
Zaif in September 2018 ($ 62 million). Some publications in this area also
presented more technical aspects related to the actual carrying out of attacks
and analyzed the main IT tools used in the crime (Karapapas et al., 2020;
Caporale et al., 2020; Phillips & Wilder, 2020).
The last highlighted research area is that of legal regulations regarding
cryptocurrencies and their impact on the security level of this market.
The analysis covers both global and national levels. The authors identified
the current state of the law and the desired directions of its changes. The
regulations applied in the United States (Levin et al., 2015; Fletcher et al.,
2021), Great Britain (Lui & Ryder, 2021; Wronka, 2022), China (Riley, 2021),
Australia (Irwin & Dawson, 2019), Germany and Switzerland (Wronka,
2022) and in smaller countries such as Liechtenstein (Teichmann & Falker,
2020; 2021) and Malta (Buttigieg & Sapiano, 2020). In some cases, broader
international comparative analyzes were carried out, which allowed for
more profound conclusions. In general, attention was drawn to the urgent
need to develop and implement some global standards regulating the
cryptocurrency market. The rules applied at the national level are insufficient
to protect investors fully. Crypto-asset transactions, by their nature, involve
transnational cash flows.

CONCLUSION

The main purpose of this paper was to identify the current scope of research
on cryptocurrencies as a subject of fraud. Ultimately, 57 publications were
selected for the systematic review of the literature. The detailed bibliometric
and descriptive analysis showed that it is generally a new area of ​​scientific
research, although it is developing quite intensely. The relatively small
number of publications compared to other similar areas also indicates that
this topic is not yet explored widely by scientists, and many different research
trends can be created within it.

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 Małgorzata Kutera / 67

In turn, an in-depth analysis of the content made it possible to find

answers to the specific research questions. They mainly referred to identifying
the most critical trends in the current research on cryptocurrencies in the
context of financial fraud and the definition of potential opportunities for
further investigation of this topic. The starting point in this part of the study
was the identification of three thematic clusters and more detailed areas
of analysis within them. Ultimately, the following key research trends were
identified: types of cryptocurrency fraud, crime detection methods, risks
related to blockchain technology, money laundering, and legal regulations
related to cryptocurrencies. One of the questions also concerned the practical
implications of the research area, namely identifying the most common
crimes committed with the use of cryptocurrencies. These include money
laundering and financial pyramids based on the Ponzi scheme.
The contribution of this study is threefold. It is one of the first research
papers showing the results of a systematic literature review (SLR) combined
with a bibliographic and in-depth analysis of the content of publications
in this field. This is all the more important as the scale of crimes involving
cryptocurrencies is growing yearly, which is also mentioned in this study.
Secondly, the key types of fraud have been identified that, at the same time,
cause the most significant financial loss. This allowed for the establishing of
directions for further research, which have profound practical implications for
market participants. The most important issues that should be included are:

• desired changes in the field of international and national legal

regulations regarding cryptocurrency trading, which on the one hand,
would increase the security of investors, but at the same time, would
not inhibit the natural development of new solutions emerging along
with the dynamic technological development;
• in-depth research on identifying possible types of fraud committed
using cryptocurrencies, mainly to build effective mechanisms to
combat these phenomena. In this respect, cooperation of specialists
in various fields, for example, financiers and IT specialists, would be
desirable;
• creating and analyzing various application tools supporting fraud
detection in the blockchain environment.

However, there are also limitations to this study. Regarding the research
methodology, the Scopus database does not allow the analysis of all available
publications related to the topic (including studies only in paper form).
Moreover, only items published in English were taken into account during
the selection of articles. Various reports prepared by organizations dealing
with the analysis of the cryptocurrency market or institutions responsible for
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shaping legal regulations in this field were also not taken into account. The
main goal of the article was closely related only to scientific publications.
It is also worth mentioning the time limit. The selection of the items in the
literature on the subject was made as of July 2022. Therefore, the analysis
did not cover the latest publications, which may be important in the
context of the dynamic development and changes that have taken place on
the cryptocurrency market in the recent period of time. Despite this, the
author believes the study will be a helpful resource for current and future
scholars interested in addressing the most critical connections between
cryptocurrencies and financial crimes.

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Abstrakt
CEL: Celem głównym niniejszego opracowania jest identyfikacja aktualnego zakresu
badań dotyczących kryptowalut jako przedmiotu nadużyć finansowych. Szczegóło-
we pytania badawcze odnosiły się do prezentacji najważniejszych kierunków tema-
tycznych prowadzonych badań oraz zdefiniowania potencjalnych możliwości dalszej
analizy tego tematu. Jedno z pytań wiązało się również z identyfikacją najbardziej
popularnych oszustw przeprowadzanych z użyciem kryptowalut. METODYKA: Ar-
tykuł opiera się na systematycznym przeglądzie literatury (SLR) przeprowadzonym
dla 57 publikacji dostępnych w bazie Scopus. Dokonano bibliometrycznej oraz opiso-
wej analizy wybranych pozycji literatury przedmiotu. Następnie wydzielono główne
klastry tematyczne i dokonano pogłębionej analizy ich treści. WYNIKI: Szczegółowa
analiza bibliometryczna i opisowa pokazała, że tematyka kryptowalut jako przedmio-
tu nadużyć finansowych jest generalnie nowym obszarem badań naukowych, choć
rozwija się dość intensywnie. Relatywnie mała liczba publikacji w porównaniu z in-
nymi podobnymi obszarami pokazuje również, że ten temat nie jest jeszcze tak moc-
no eksplorowany przez naukowców i można w nim rozwijać wiele różnych trendów
badawczych. Ostatecznie zidentyfikowano następujące kluczowe obszary badawcze:

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rodzaje oszustw kryptowalutowych, metody wykrywania nadużyć, ryzyka związane

z technologią blockchain, pranie brudnych pieniędzy oraz regulacje prawne dotyczą-
ce kryptowalut. Udało się również ustalić, że obecnie najczęściej występującym prze-
stępstwem jest pranie pieniędzy. Zwrócono jednak uwagę, że drugim dość częstym
oszustwem są piramidy finansowe oparte na schemacie Ponziego. IMPLIKACJE: W ar-
tykule wyraźnie przedstawiono główne trendy badawcze dotyczące wykorzystania
kryptowalut w działalności przestępczej. Jednocześnie podkreślono, że w porównaniu
do innych obszarów badawczych niniejsza tematyka jest stosunkowo nowa. Powstaje
zatem szeroka możliwość eksploracji nie tylko istniejących, ale również nie odkyrtych
do tej pory nurtów badawczych. Ponadto zidentyfikowano kluczowe rodzaje oszustw
w praktyce gospodarczej, co jest szczególnie istotne dla uczestników rynków finan-
sowych. Wyraźnie wskazano bowiem, które transakcje są obarczone największym
ryzykiem. Warto również zwrócić uwagę na istotną aktualność tematu, gdyż skala
przestępczości z udziałem kryptowalut ostatnio gwałtownie rośnie. Opracowanie po-
twierdza niedostateczny zakres regulacji prawnych, które nie są w stanie odpowied-
nio wzmocnić bezpeczeństwa obrotu gospodarczego. Może być zatem jasnym wska-
zaniem dla rządów poszczególnych państw, czy też instytucji międzynarodowych do
dalszych sprawnych zmian przepisów prawa. ORYGINALNOŚĆ I WARTOŚĆ: Naukowy
wkład niniejszego opracowania jest potrójny. Po pierwsze, jest to jeden z pierwszych
artykułów badawczych prezentujący wyniki systematycznego przeglądu literatury
(SLR) połączonego z analizą bibliograficzną oraz pogłębioną analizą treści publikacji.
Podczas pracy zastosowano również oprogramowanie VOSviewer, które umożliwiło
obiektywną identyfikację głównych klastrów tematycznych opartą na occurrences
and link strength of keywords ujętych w publikacjach. Po drugie, zidentyfikowano
kluczowe rodzaje oszustw, które jednocześnie powodują największe straty finanso-
we. Wyznaczono również kierunki dalszych badań, które mają głębokie praktyczne
implikacje dla uczestników rynku. Niektóre z nich dotyczą bowiem konieczności opra-
cowywania i wdrażania nowoczesnych aplikacji komputerowych, pozwalajacych na
wykrywanie szerszego zakresu pojawiających się nadużyć.
Słowa kluczowe: kryptowaluta, bitcoin, blockchain, nadużycia finansowe,
przestępstwa gospodarcze, pranie brudnych pieniędzy, schemat Ponziego, piramida
finansowa, systematyczny przegląd literatury

Biographical note
Małgorzata Kutera is an assistant professor in the Institute of Economics,
Finance and Management at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland.
She is also a certified public accountant (CPA) and has many years of
experience in auditing financial statements. The critical areas of her research
include accounting, auditing, and corporate financial reporting. Most of the
publications focus on theoretical and practical aspects of auditing financial
statements, the activity of statutory auditors, the organization of the audit
services market, and the methodology of verification processes. In this
context, fraudulent financial reporting and the role of auditing in detecting

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such crimes are of particular importance. Other scientific interests include the
financial reporting system, creative accounting, and issues related to the tax
optimization of enterprises from national and international perspectives.

Conflicts of interest
The author declares no conflict of interest.

Citation (APA Style)

Kutera, M. (2022). Cryptocurrencies as a subject of financial fraud. Journal
of Entrepreneurship, Management, and Innovation, 18(4), 45-77. https://doi.
org/10.7341/20221842

Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Innovation

Volume 18, Issue 4, 2022: 45-77