1 August 2026
Crypto Criminals Have Stolen $1.4B In Last Five Months
As per the researchers, 2020 can break the records of cryptocurrency-related thefts, hacks, and fraud.
CipherTrace reported that users have lost $1.4 billion in the first five months of 2020 to crypto-related fraud, thefts, and other crimes.
The fraud related to coronavirus which involves the use of cryptocurrencies was minimal but it did not give a specific figure. The way crypto crime is going it could be the second-largest on record after last year's $4.5 billion (roughly Rs. 33,804 crores) in losses.
The chief executive officer of CipherTrace, Dave Jevans said, "Consumers, investors, and users continue to adopt cryptocurrency at a massive rate and it is by far the fastest-growing payment system on the planet." He further added, "At one trillion dollars (roughly Rs. 75.12 lakh crores) in annual payments, cryptocurrency payments have grown from zero to 7 percent in 10 years, making this volume of funds attractive to bad actors."
The CipherTrace report states that fraud-related coronavirus usually took place by luring victims off legitimate platforms into chat rooms where payment in Bitcoin can be requested. COVID-19 fraud is also mimicking legitimate entities such as The Red Cross to extract personal information and payment in cryptocurrencies, and apps that seek to help the victims but are spying on users, as well as the sale of bogus personal protective equipment, supposed treatments, and testing kits.
CipherTrace says the biggest contributor to crypto losses this year was the $1 billion (roughly Rs. 7,512 crores) Ponzi scheme by Wotoken in China.
In the Wotoken scheme, the investors were offered a chance to generate returns for users by employing algorithmic trading bots, offering referral commissions to affiliates. But in reality, the advertised proprietary trading software did not exist. According to the CipherTrace report, Finnish exchanges in the third year in a row received the highest number of bitcoins that were supposed to have come from criminal sources.
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