Chainalysis notes growth in losses from cryptocurrency fraud
Date: 2025-02-17 Author: Oliver Abernathy Categories: BUSINESS
Over the past four years, crypto fraudsters' activity has shown steady growth, increasing by an average of 24% annually. Chainalysis emphasized that the largest share of income - 50.2% - was brought by schemes promising high returns on investment. However, compared to the previous year, the attackers earned 36.6% less.
"Pig slaughter" schemes took second place in profitability, providing fraudsters with 33.2% of all illegal income. Their popularity has increased sharply - total income increased by 40%, and the number of transactions increased by 210%. The company's experts attribute this to the fact that criminal groups focused on attracting new victims, reducing the amounts of individual payments.
Attackers still prefer centralized exchanges to cash out funds, but decentralized protocols are also gaining popularity. Chainalysis noted that fraudsters are actively using generative artificial intelligence, which allows them to automate processes and reduce costs.
The company previously reported that in 2024, the amount of funds stolen as a result of hacker attacks reached $2.2 billion, which is 21% more than in the previous year.
