Money for Criminals

Read an article this morning about the paradoxical occurrence of a rise in demand for paper money as paper money usage plummets (Apple Pay, Venmo, CashApp, etc proliferating). So who is all this cash for? Simply put: criminals. More specifically, the article was about $100 bills. Some stats that stood out to me:

The $100 bill is the most circulated note at 80% of paper money supply.

3/4 of 100s are outside the U.S.

$1M in 100s is 22 lbs. Moving large quantities of money obviously requires space and weight efficiency.

Money laundering has been a known massive issue to government for many many years but efforts to crack down have inexplicably focused more on tools like cryptocurrencies whose use in criminal activity is infinitesimal compared to cash. In effect, by producing, distributing, and failing to provide adequate restrictions, the government is enabling the worst of the worst in the world to operate criminal organizations. They are not just enabling, they are aiding.

But yeah, bitcoin is the monetary instrument for criminals. Laughably stupid.

Sorry for not having a non-paywall link to the article as I saw it on my Apple News Feed (Mother Jones Magazine was the source). I googled around and found many other articles/publications talking about the same issue, I had just never seen the numbers before.