> bitcoin is used but it is increasing difficult to cash out in a large way.

But its not? You can convert 50 million usd worth of bitcoin in one order without moving the market more than 1-1.5% and have a wire transfer to your bank account same day. This happens all day every day, with the markets getting deeper year by year.

Trash exchanges for retail have nothing to do with the infrastructure actually out there. If you are moving anything over 4 figures you shouldn't be trying to use retail exchanges. They're trash, slower, randomly flag stuff, and have higher fees.

What exchanges allow you to move that kind of money?

every trade desk anywhere

its been like this for half of bitcoin's existence

they consider themselves distinct from exchanges because they do not take custody of people's funds, in their opinion

As someone who sold Bitcoin on LocalBitcoins, and have 4 friends in federal prison (or detention), plus friends with millions in tainted BitCoin, this is not true.

Almost all illegal bitcoin stolen by hackers and ransomware is cashed out in countries with limited or no AML/KYC.

>it is increasing difficult to cash out in a large way

It is actually difficult to cash out?

I imagine you'd get caught on the off-ramps, since you'd most certainly be reported (by the exchange and/or your bank) to FinCEN. At that point you'd have to contend with the "the money came from bags of cash that just landed in my back yard" problem if federal agents come knocking. As for whether the federal agents will show up at all, I'm not sure. There probably aren't too many criminals who would openly admit that they successfully were able to withdraw their ill gotten gains.

Would fincen show up in Russia? And tumblers can hide the source easily. 4m$ is a lot to clean but it’s not impossible.

Cash can hide the source just as easily. Laundering is the real problem. Yes, even in Russia.

Unless you're best friends with an oligarch, and if that's the case, you can always get Deutsche Bank to do it for you.

I was assuming a US-centric view. If it's russia (or any other lax country), all bets are off as you've said.