CipherTrace: losses from cryptocurrency cybercrimes rose in 2019 to $ 4.52 billion

According to CipherTrace, losses from hacker attacks decreased last year, but overall losses from crimes incrypto assets grew to $ 4.52 billion from $ 1.74 billion in 2018.

In its latest report for the 4th quarter of 2019CipherTrace presented key data on cybercrimes over the past year. Analysts say total cryptocurrency theft and fraud rose nearly 160% to $4.5 billion. This includes $370.7 million lost to thefts and hacks and $4.1 billion — as a result of fraud and misappropriation of funds. CipherTrace CEO Dave Jevans told Reuters:

“We noticed a significant increase in the numbercriminals who carry out fraud with unsuspecting victims or lure users into cryptocurrency pyramids. Attacks from within organizations also lead to significant leaks of information with serious consequences for the cryptocurrency industry. ”

CipherTrace's findings that losses from theft andhacker attacks fell 66% last year, consistent with the findings of another report published in January by Chainalysis. According to this study, the total value of crypto assets stolen from exchanges fell to about $283 million last year, although the number of hacks increased, with 11 successful attacks.

Thus, most of the losses fromCrypto assets offenses occurred due to misappropriation of funds and fraud. The number of such cases has increased five times. At the same time, two major incidents in the first quarter of 2019 became the main reason for the growth in the total volume of losses:

Retail and institutional cryptocurrenciesinvestors in Asia lost about $3 billion after the closure of the PlusToken wallet, which turned out to be a pyramid scheme. Clients of the Canadian exchange QuadrigaCX lost about $135 million. The platform unexpectedly closed after the death of its founder, the only one who had access to private keys.

In its report, CipherTrace notes that 97%Ransomware uses BTC to demand ransom during attacks. Another finding is that fraudulent cryptocurrency service operators, including some cryptocurrency exchanges, were moving funds into the payment networks of most of the top ten largest U.S. retail banks.

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