According to a study by the analytical company Chainalysis, in 2021 the total amount of stolen cryptocurrencies was $ 7.7 billion, an increase of 81% over the previous year.
Criminals have stolen $ 7.7 billion worth of cryptocurrencies this year, up 81% from 2020, according to a Chainalysis report. Last year, the number of cryptocurrency fraud cases dropped significantly compared to 2019. The situation changed in 2021 with the emergence of the FINIKO financial pyramid, the losses from which amounted to $ 1.1 billion.
Also, a significant part of the funds was stolen through the scheme for withdrawing liquidity from DeFi pools (rug pull). If in 2020 the decentralized finance (DeFi) industry accounted for 1% of losses from fraud with cryptoassets, then in 2021 this figure increased to 37% and reached $ 2.8 billion.
So, last month the rate of the SQUID game token unexpectedly soared by 70,000%, reaching $ 2,861, and then collapsed to zero. At the same time, liquidity was frozen, so investors could not sell their holdings of tokens. Not long before this, a similar fraud had occurred, during which the developers of the AnubisDAO project sold tokens for $ 60 million, and then disappeared with investors’ money.
At the same time, the total amount of funds received to fraudulent addresses in 2021 fell from just under $ 10.7 million to $ 4.1 million.This could mean that the number of fraud victims has decreased, and the average amount received from each defrauded investor has increased. The number of fraudsters to whose addresses funds were received increased from 2,052 in 2020 to 3,300 in 2021.
At the same time, the average duration of fraudulent cryptocurrency schemes has decreased from 192 days in 2020 to 70 days in 2021. Previously, this figure was 2,369 days, which may indicate an increase in the professionalism of law enforcement agencies in the field of cryptocurrencies. For example, in September, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) fined 12 New York firms that traded options for cryptocurrencies.
However, the strategies for money laundering by scammers have not changed much. As in previous years, most of the cryptocurrencies sent from fraudulent addresses ended up on major exchanges. Chainalysis researchers emphasize that fraud represents a major obstacle to cryptocurrency adoption.
Between April 2020 and March 2021, complaints about fraudulent cryptocurrency projects increased by 222%, according to the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Crystal Blockchain recently published a report according to which hackers stole more than $ 12.1 billion worth of cryptocurrencies from 2011 to 2021.
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