Cryptocurrency Scams Could Cost Industry $4.3 Bln This Year: CipherTrace Report

According to Blockchain analytics boutique CipherTrace, cryptocurrency scams could amount to a total of $4.3 bln in 2019. The figure was published in the firm’s “Q1 2019 Cryptocurrency Anti-Money Laundering Report,” which was first discovered by technology website VentureBeat.
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Alive and kicking 

The outlet points out that the collective effort of cryptocurrency wallets and exchanges to ramp up their security measures was not sufficient to stop hackers from pilfering more than $125 mln of crypto in the second quarter. This amount could reach as much as $400 mln if to consider the rapid growth of the cryptocurrency market during the aforementioned period.

As reported by U.Today, even Binance, the number one exchange by trading volume, suffered a $40 mln security breach back in May. Thus, even such behemoths of the crypto industry are not able to catch up with new tools deployed by bad actors.
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A hidden threat

However, CipherTrace, predicts that exit scammers, not hackers, will rule the roost in 2019. QuadrigaCX set the trend at the beginning of 2019 with more than $200 million being locked in the cold wallet of the exchange’s allegedly dead CEO.  

Not surprisingly, the growing number of fraudsters in the crypto space has led to closer scrutiny from regulators around the world.