Solana (SOL) has become a notable target and conduit for money laundering activities both in the United States and globally, due to its high-speed transaction capabilities and interoperability across blockchains. Criminal actors exploit Solana’s decentralized exchanges, cross-chain bridges, and mixing services to rapidly obscure illicit funds—often proceeds from scams and hacking exploits—by converting stolen SOL into other cryptocurrencies, including privacy coins like Monero, and moving them through multiple wallets and exchanges worldwide. These laundering schemes use sophisticated techniques such as flash loans, nested token swaps across decentralized and centralized platforms, layered bridging between blockchain networks, and bot-driven transaction obfuscation to evade regulatory detection. Despite strong efforts by U.S. law enforcement, including landmark prosecutions such as the case against Shakeeb Ahmed for exploiting Solana smart contracts to launder millions, these complex laundering networks remain difficult to dismantle fully, underscoring Solana’s dual role as both a technological innovation in finance and a challenge for anti-money laundering enforcement.​
In a landmark case within the United States, Shakeeb Ahmed exploited a vulnerability in a Solana-based decentralized exchange smart contract in July 2022 to fraudulently generate around $9 million in inflated fees through price manipulation. Utilizing his expertise in reverse engineering and blockchain auditing, Ahmed employed flash loans for rapid fund extraction. Subsequently, he engaged in extensive laundering of these fees using token swaps, cross-chain bridging from Solana to Ethereum, and converting funds into the privacy coin Monero to obscure their origin. Funds were further obscured through offshore exchanges. Despite sophisticated layering techniques designed to cover the trails, U.S. law enforcement tracked the illicit funds, leading to charges of wire fraud and money laundering filed by the Southern District of New York in July 2023. This case represents a pioneering U.S. prosecution against crypto smart contract attacks and highlights the ongoing global struggle against money laundering in decentralized finance, with Solana used both as an attack surface and laundering conduit for illicit crypto proceeds.​
