Investors lost $7.8 billion in cryptocurrency-related scams, and about $3.2 billion worth of assets were stolen in 2021 amid rising illegitimate activities.
Cryptocurrencies used for illegal activities doubled in the same year to $14 billion compared to the preceding period.
Ransomware, scams, and theft jumped 79% on a dollar basis as the general cryptocurrency market grew 550% to $15.8 trillion trading volumes in 2021.
$2.8 billion were lost to scams in the DeFi protocols as an additional $2.2 billion, a 1,330% increase from 2020, being stolen.
Illegal accounts hold more than $10 billion worth of digital assets as of January 2022.
The director of research at Chainalysis, Kim Grauer, notes that the data shows that illegal activities in the cryptocurrency sector are reducing progressively.
Grauer says that the illegitimate cryptocurrency transactions have dropped from 0.34% to 0.15% from a previous study.
Source: FT
