Cryptocurrency fraud decreased by 65% due to the fall of the cryptocurrency rate

Due to the fall in prices of cryptocurrency assets and the departure of less experienced users from the market, cryptocurrency scams have decreased. According to a Chainalysis report published on August 16, losses from cryptocurrency fraud since the beginning of 2022 amounted to USD 1.6 billion, which is 65% less than in 2021.

Eric Jardine, head of cybercrime research at Chainalysis and author of the report, explains that crypto investors are more likely to fall for fraud during market growth, when investment opportunities and high returns will attract criminals and inexperienced users. Jardine hypothesized that bull markets will see a greater number of inexperienced cryptocurrency users, as they are the ones who most often fall victim to fraud.

The researcher notes that the largest fraud in 2022 caused losses of «only» $ 273 million. It is related to the investment platform for cannabis cultivation JuicyFields. io, which blocked cryptocurrency investors from accessing accounts in the «electronic cultivation» service.

The report also states that a large concentration of crypto criminals comes from the North Korean hacker group Lazarus Group. Jardine added that in 2022, revenue from the darknet market fell by 43% due to the fact that German law enforcement agencies shut down the servers of the Russian Hydra Marketplace in April.

It is worth reminding that in 2022, several large-scale DeFi hacks took place: in February 2022, the Wormhole Bridge gave $ 250 million to the attackers, in March, Ronin Bridge lost $ 620 million, and on August 1, Nomad Bridge was hacked for $ 186 million.