[cs702]

It's also the #1 use case for $100 US dollar bills. Most US $100 bills, in fact, are not even in the US.[a][b]

US $100 bills are the currency of choice for small-time crooks and evildoers around the world.

They are also the currency of choice for big-time crooks and evildoers. Briefcases of US $100 bills have long been used for illicit payments, as depicted in numerous books and movies.

Just because crooks and evildoers use US $100 bills doesn't mean they are not useful and valuable to honest people too.

What Binance did was wrong, no doubt, but Binance ≠ crypto.

--

[a] https://www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-economy/2022/oct/innocent-...

[b] https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2013/04/12/177051690/most...

[crazygringo]

There's a major distinction, however, in that it's a heck of a lot harder to safely and reliably lug briefcases or suitcases full of $100 bills from Chicago to Tehran, than it is to click and transfer some Bitcoin. Which is the whole point.

[cs702]

Yeah, crypto is a safer, more reliable alternative for many use cases, including those that are fundamentally honest. For instance, if you're an honest person trapped as a citizen in a despotic authoritarian state that doesn't respect your property rights, crypto may be the safest, most reliable alternative for storing and transferring your hard-earned savings.

[jazzyjackson]

Yes, mostly they are distributed via pallets out the back of C130s

(Definitely in Iraq and Afghanistan, I don't know if there's any back channel deals at the moment paying off Iranians in 100$ bills but I wouldn't be surprised if we were nudging for regime change by funding revolutionaries)

[YetAnotherNick]

It's not hard even for Iran to trade gold and oil in USD.

> The Wall Street Journal reported, saying the hidden conduit enabled Tehran to receive up to $8.4 billion last year.

[1]: https://www.iranintl.com/en/202510060867

[dylan604]

> Just because criminals and evildoers use US $100 bills doesn't mean they are not useful and valuable to honest people too.

Like all of the ATMs near a dispensary that was always out of cash because 20 individual $20 bills runs out a lot faster than 4 $100 bills. Until dispensaries became legal, it was rare for me to see an ATM with anything other than $20s. Now, I see $20, $50, $100 dispensing machines regularly.

[michaelt]

> Now, I see $20, $50, $100 dispensing machines regularly.

There's also been a lot of inflation.

If you held a $50 bill in 1997, or a $20 bill in 1978, then you held a note worth more than a $100 bill today.

[m463]

I knew someone who ran an exchange house (like the kind you find in airports)

He said that euros are very popular because there are 500 euro bills.

I guess they stopped making them.

[cyberax]

A briefcase of $100 notes is just around 1 million. That's like a tip you give to a waiter these days in the world of crypto.

At the scale of cryptocrime, you'd be looking at trucks filled with $100 notes.