[meowface]

For Monero, yes, that's by far the predominant use. For a time, that was the predominant use for Bitcoin, but I'm pretty sure it isn't anymore as of like ~7 years ago, probably. (The article mentions Bitcoin - probably because ransomware operators know ransomware victims can more easily acquire Bitcoin than Monero - but for other kinds of serious black market activity it's almost always Monero.)

For others, I think it's totally untrue even from the start. It's actually usually a lot easier to launder USD than it is to launder something like Bitcoin or Ethereum, given every transaction is completely public and traceable.

[ethanbond]

The important feature of traditional accounts is that they’re all individually tied to some real-world entity. It’s hard to understand what money ultimately went where in a chain of 10,000 purposely convoluted transactions even if you can see the entire transaction record. Good luck creating 10k bank accounts to shuffle money around.

[meowface]

True. But if someone's goal is to launder, they're just going to use Monero - no need to do any kind of shuffling and mixing like that. It's simply untraceable by default and way more anonymous than USD or Bitcoin.

[meowface]

(I should've said "nearly untraceable".)