Chinalysis writes that digital deviants stole more than $1.6 billion in 2024, but overall illegal activity declined. It also explains the main reason why the value of stolen funds has increased.
Criminals are on track to steal $3 billion in cryptocurrencies this year, according to Chinalysis' top cybercrime researchers.
According to a new report from Chinalysis released Thursday, analysts at the crypto analytics firm estimate that the amount stolen by bad actors will nearly double to $1.6 billion in 2024 so far, from $857 million stolen between January and July 2023.
“If you follow a straight line from where we are, you're on track for somewhere in the $2 to $3 billion-plus range in terms of total dollars stolen this year,” said Eric Jardine, cybercrimes research lead at The Chinalysis. News.
He qualifies that his estimate does not necessarily represent official estimates from Chinalysis and is subject to price changes, major hacks and other unforeseen events.
Money lost to crypto hacks since 2016. Source: DefiLlama
Hackers stole nearly $1.7 billion in 2023.
Surprisingly, overall illegal activity in the crypto industry has dropped by about 20% this year compared to last, Jardine said.
Illegal activities include not only stolen funds but also other illegal activities including crypto sent or received for terrorism financing.
The Chinalysis report comes less than a month after one of the biggest hacks of the year.
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In July, WazirX saw hackers drain $235 million from its coffers, nearly half of the Indian crypto exchange's total assets.
WazirX is still dealing with the fallout of the robbery. The exchange decided recently Take the funds It is kept with a crypto custodian blames for extortion.
'Back to the Future'
Chinalysis was quick to clarify that most of the dollar value of stolen crypto funds stems from price increases.
According to CoinGecko, the total value of all cryptocurrencies has nearly doubled since August 2023 to nearly $2.17 trillion.
Chinalysis also observed changes in hackers' tactics. They are “going back to the future” and targeting more centralized exchanges than DeFi protocols, it wrote.
“Crypto thieves seem to be returning to their roots and targeting centralized exchanges after four years of focusing on their decentralized counterparts,” Chinalysis wrote.
Crypto market movers
Bitcoin is down 4.1% to trade at $TK at $58,722 in the last hours.Ethereum is down 3.9% to trade at $2,641.
What are we studying?
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Ben Weiss is the Dubai correspondent News. Got a tip? Email him [email protected].
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