The volume of cryptocurrency thefts from exchanges in 2018 increased 4 times

Last year, fraudsters stole cryptocurrencies in the aggregate of $ 1.7 billion, follows from the report of the company CipherTrace, of which almost $ 1 billion was stolen from the exchanges – 3.6 times more than a year earlier. Real numbers can be much higher, analysts admit, because far from all cases of cryptoactive fraud are known.

Cryptobirds in 2018 accounted for theft of $ 950 million, CipherTrace estimates, 3.6 times more than in 2017, and more than 7 times more than in 2016. Nearly 60% of these fraudulent transactions occurred in Japan and Korea. Fictitious ICO, exchange operations and pyramid schemes deprived cryptoinvestors of another $ 750 million. At the same time, in the last quarter of 2018, the cryptocurrency theft declined in dollar terms – partly due to the fact that the most massive fraud episodes occurred in previous quarters, and partly with the fall of the cryptocurrency rate.

As for the ICO, the record was set this year in Vietnam: there fraudsters received $ 660 million from the fictitious placement of tokens. The company Modern Tech has deceived about 32,000 people, promising them a constant monthly yield of 48% and a commission of 8% for bringing new investors to the scheme.