A recent report shows that in the first quarter of 2019 fraudsters and scammers have already managed to get hold of $1.2 bln in crypto
As per a recent Reuter’s piece, CipherTrace agency, working in the sphere of cybersecurity, reported that losses of crypto in thefts and fraud this year already total over $1 bln. That constitutes 70 percent of all crypto losses suffered by the crypto community last year.
Crypto thefts’ volume rose during the ‘crypto winter’
As per CipherTrace, the overall volume of crypto stolen in various methods last year totals $1.7 bln. Even the so-called crypto winter did not prevent scammers from making their profits. On the contrary, their activity increased even though the market was going down along with crypto prices and business activity in the blockchain and cryptocurrency sector.
Losses this year so far
So far, in Q1 2019, hackers have stolen $356 mln in crypto from digital exchanges. The brightest example here is New Zealand-based Cryptopia which was hacked several times in succession. Around $851 mln in crypto assets has been lost in frauds and scams.
CipherTrace adds to those figures the crypto frozen in the user-accounts of the Canada-based QuadrigaCX exchange – $134 mln in virtual assets. The reason for that was the sudden death of its CEO, who was the only person with access to the private keys.
The CEO of ChiperTrace, Dave Jevans, believes that:
“Crypto crime has gotten worse because regulations are still weakly enforced. Europe broadly has not implemented its regulations yet and the cybercriminal community continues to grow.”
He insists that many of these thefts took place outside US where there are hardly any regulations or they have been implemented poorly. The reason for that, he says, is lack of experience and too much greed from the young teams that run these platforms.
Australia also reports massive crypto losses
A recent report by an Australian government agency ACCC says that 2018 was also harsh for this country’s crypto exchanges and users. Despite the crypto market’s decline, the amount of assets lost to hackers and scammers rose by 190 percent compared to 2017 – the year, when the market was enjoying a bull run.
If in 2017, the Australian crypto community lost $2.1 mln in digital coins, then during the bearish 2018 this number rose to $6.1 mln.
