Cryptocurrencies have long been plagued with illicit, criminal activities. However, new data from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) shows that this is no longer the case.

DEA special agent Lilita Infante, one of the 10 members of the Cyber-Investigative Task Force, recently spoke with Bloomberg about criminal activity on blockchains. According to Infante, there was a time that illegal activity was responsible for 90% of cryptocurrency transactions. With speculation being the number one driving factor, Infante says illegal activity now only accounts for 10% of transactions.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have often been publicly ridiculed based off of perceptions of illegal activity. But this new data paints a different picture. Contrary to the beliefs of many pundits and news publications, Bitcoin is not mostly used by criminals. Frankly, it’s not even close, as we can see by the data. It’s mostly used by speculators.

While the percentage of overall transactions with criminal intent is down, the actual number of criminals using blockchain and criminal transactions have grown.

Infante told Bloomberg, “The volume has grown tremendously, the amount of transactions and the dollar value has grown tremendously over the years in criminal activity, but the ratio has decreased. The majority of transactions are used for price speculation.’’

While the famous dark web marketplace Silk Road was shut down by the FBI, along with mastermind Ross Ulbricht, in 2013, there is still a vast dark web out there today. The dark web is an online marketplace for the sale of illegal goods; guns, drugs, private information such as credit card and social security numbers, pornography, murder-for-hire, etc. While Ulbricht is currently serving a life sentence, this current dark web still deals exclusively in cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrencies are sent on a decentralized ledger, are extremely hard to trace, and the transactions are pseudonymous, with some being entirely private, such as Monero and Zcash.

While some are using alternate cryptocurrencies, most illegal transactions are still in Bitcoin. The Bitcoin blockchain is entirely public, which allows for tracking based of patterns and the related transactions. “The blockchain actually gives us a lot of tools to be able to identify people,’’ says Infante. “I actually want them to keep using them.’’

This should prove to be good news for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Institutional investors have long shied away from digital currencies for a variety of reasons, but illicit activity has always been toward the top of the list. These new findings could be positively influential in that regard.