Funds don't originate with criminal activity, they originate with coinbase transactions. A dollar used on illegal activity doesn't make that dollar less useful, that's part of the whole idea behind money in the first place. You don't measure how much money was used at some point doing illegal activity, if you go back far enough, every dollar was used on something illegal at some point. The only honest measure is how much is currently being used for illegal activity.
"The elite" implies people that own mansions on long island. But the elite in this case includes regular people that made the smart financial decision to go in on this thing early. When being elite is superfluous it becomes a meaningless distinction.
Addresses do not equate to individuals.
The article is interesting though, it is still a decent article and somewhat informative.