World Bank Aid Is Being Laundered Through Crypto Wallets, Study Finds

Around 2-6% of World Bank foreign aid got siphoned into crypto wallets

A new NBER working paper tracks $238 billion in World Bank aid across 93 countries from 2018 to 2024 and finds that crypto activity spikes sharply in the month aid tranches arrive, driven by anonymous, newly created wallets on both tax-haven and mainstream exchanges. The authors estimate that 2 to 6 cents of every aid dollar is diverted, roughly $1.7 to $4.4 billion in total, and that the four affected sectors keep receiving half of subsequent World Bank funding.