A laundering route is the sequence of transfers used to hide where funds came from and make them harder to trace. In cybercrime, this usually means moving stolen cryptocurrency through multiple wallets, exchanges, bridges, or blockchains so the original source becomes less obvious.
This matters because the route itself can reveal patterns investigators use to connect addresses, spot wallet reuse, and identify cash-out points. Attackers try to break the trail with fast hops, chain-hopping, and fragmented transfers, but each step can still create timestamps, fee patterns, and interaction data that analysts correlate. Defenders use blockchain analytics, exchange cooperation, and freeze requests to interrupt the route before funds are converted into spendable value.