You are right.
It is being used to launder money in some cases. It is also being used to evade capital controls in developing countries. I discussed it in below link:
A lot of countries have currency restrictions, including countries like China. We know that smart money is leaving China and will stay in USD for example (or CHF), but how do people get money out? Currency restrictions like this exist in many countries all over the globe. For example, assume...
www.offshorecorptalk.com
The price of bitcoin as you say does not matter so much to organised criminal gangs. It is just a medium to transfer money across borders with unparalleled ease, privacy and speed. BTC being so liquid it is a suitable medium alongside other liquid and more stable cryptos like USDT. A drug dealer could buy i.e 2kg of coke from Columbia for i.e 2 BTC instantly. The drug supplier then can liquidate the BTC instantly into the market place via a partnering crypto exchange anywhere in the world and then into banked fiat easily. It is a no brainer to use crypto compared to riskier wire transfers, bulky physical cash or other financial instruments that require more concealing and effort.
Anyway bitcoin is naturally volatile as it is a speculative instrument with no fundamentals and its price movement will have little to do with what I said above sadly.
Tell me the pump is not over....lol. I am sure there is more buying idiots out there to push the price back up...come on......lol.