NEW YORK—Cybercriminals laundered $8.6 billion in cryptocurrencies last year, up 30 percent from 2020, according to a report from blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis released on Wednesday. Overall, cybercriminals have laundered more than $33 billion worth of crypto since 2017, Chainalysis estimated, with most of the total over time moving to centralized exchanges. The firm said the sharp rise in money laundering activity in 2021 was not surprising, given the significant growth of both legitimate and illegal crypto activity last year. Money laundering refers to that process of disguising the origin of illegally obtained money by transferring it to legitimate businesses. About 17 percent of the $8.6 billion laundered went to decentralized finance applications, Chainalysis said, referring to the sector which facilitates crypto-denominated financial transactions outside of traditional banks. That was up from 2 percent in 2020. Mining pools, high-risk exchanges, and mixers also saw substantial increases in value received from …