Crypto crime: Over $7 billion has been stolen in hacks and scams

• About $7.6 billion has been lost in the cryptocurrency industry since 2011.
• There have been about 113 exchange hacks and 23 scams since these years.

Cases of crypto crime have been rising for years now. As the digital currency industry continues to gain adoption worldwide, it also attracts cyber-criminals who plague the exchanges with security hacks and fraudulent investment schemes for individual investors in the space. A recent report by Crystal Blockchain, a blockchain analytics company based in Amsterdam, shows that stolen cryptocurrencies have surpassed $7 billion in value combined.

Investors have lost a massive amount in crypto crimes

According to the information, a precise amount of $7.6 billion has been lost by cryptocurrency investors for the past nine years. This covers fraudulent activity, scams, security hacks, and cyber-terrorism since these years. This development shows the rate at which crypto crimes have been growing around the world. The blockchain company confirmed that there were 23 fraudulent schemes and 113 security hacks.

According to the report, countries like the United States, Japan, United Kingdom, China, and South Korea have the largest crypto crime cases. Most of the digital currency exchange attacked are those operating with lax security and hot wallets services. Coincheck remains the exchange with the largest crypto loss in a security breach. The Japanese exchange was attacked in 2018, lost more than $400 million worth of digital currencies.

Need for crypto education 

Crystal Blockchain noted in the report that crypto crimes are likely to continue increasing in the coming years as the cryptocurrency industry continues to grow. This highlights the need for crypto companies, especially exchanges, to continually update and introduce advanced security measures to ensure customers’ funds’ safety. More so, the participating investors in the space ought to be educated about crypto investments to avoid falling prey to fraudulent schemes.