Crypto Thieves Cash In $1.5 Billion on Centralized Platforms

DeFi has brought many advantages to the world of finance, the major one being decetralization. But when it comes to this advantage, two can definitely tango. It is extremely useful for ensuring the privacy of transactions, but criminals have also found that feature advantageous to their nefarious deeds until now.

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A mid-year report by the blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis showed that crypto criminals are bringing back their businesses to centralized exchanges. According to the report, crypto criminals have already made more than $1.5 billion in the first of half of 2024 from centralized exchanges. 

Now, crypto criminals doing what they do is not strange. What is strange is that for more than four years, these criminals have been more invested in stealing from decentralized platforms. However, it seems they’re back to centralized platforms, and according to the report, it's because they now have more sophisticated tools and new social engineering tactics. 

Chainalysis reported that the social engineering tactics used by these attackers include some North Koreans applying for IT jobs in exchanges, to breach them from the inside. Reports from the FBI and the DOJ have shown that Western tech firms have employed more than 4,000 North Koreans. 

Strategies like this one have helped criminals penetrate centralized exchanges even with their better security measures. The attraction to centralized exchanges is also not unfounded, as centralized exchanges tend to offer more enormous potential payoffs than their decentralized counterparts.

As for figures, the report also showed an 84% year-on-year increase in the value of stolen crypto, which has now reached $1.58 billion. Despite this, there are also some encouraging figures. There has been a 50% year-on-year decline in stolen crypto, which is an applaudable improvement. 

Still, there are some disturbing figures as well. Although the frequency and number of hacking incidents have only seen a small 2.76% bump year-on-year, the value stolen per incident has gone up 79% from last year’s figures. So apparently, higher-value crypto holders are now the main targets. 

The report also covered ransomware. It shows that the total ransoms paid this year have already reached $459.8 million, and it's not even December yet. The figure recorded this time last year was $449.1 million, but if 2024’s number keeps this momentum, it might take the top spot for the worst year of ransomware attacks.

This year has already seen the largest single ransomware payment recorded after a $75 million crypto payment was sent to a ransomware group called Dark Angels.

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With crypto crime on the rise, there are many things at stake. Of course, people, their money, and their investments are at stake, but so is the reputation of cryptocurrencies generally. The industry has been trying to fix its image in the eyes of lawmakers and regulators for a long time now, and an attack like this will surely set those efforts back a lot.

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