Elliptical: Scammers steal over $100M in NFTs in one year
- August 25, 2022
- 0
Analytics firm Elliptic said in a report that in the 12 months since July 2021, attackers have stolen more than $100 million in NFTs for fraudulent purposes. Between
Analytics firm Elliptic said in a report that in the 12 months since July 2021, attackers have stolen more than $100 million in NFTs for fraudulent purposes.
Between July 2021 and July 2022, over $100 million in NFTs were publicly reported fraudulently stolen, earning perpetrators an average of $300,000 per fraud.
To read our NFTs and Financial Crime Report, go to https://t.co/u6iPLjXgpR.#nft #crypto #aml– elliptical (@elliptic) August 24, 2022
On average, removing the scammers was about $300,000 per scam.
“Over 4,600 NFTs were stolen in July 2022, a one-month high. This shows that scams have not decreased despite the bear market.
At the same time, May was the most productive year in value for scammers, with $24 million in stolen assets.
Elliptic said the actual numbers for all losses are likely higher, as low-cost NFT thefts are not always publicly disclosed.
According to the firm, the most expensive asset stolen was CryptoPunk #4324, which brought in $490,000 to attackers in November 2021. The biggest theft was recorded in December with 16 known NFT losses worth $2.1 million.
More than two-thirds of the total value of stolen tokens comes from five collections – Bored Apes, Mutant Apes, Azuki, Otherside and CloneX. The first dominates with an indicator of 43.6 million dollars.
According to the report, 23% of stolen NFTs were seized by cybercriminals through compromised social networks (particularly Discord) and phishing on those networks. As in the case of Solana, other methods included creating malicious websites, using emails, and hacking wallets.
Scammers laundered 52% of NFT scam revenue through the Tornado Cash mixer before the service was approved by the US Treasury Department in August.
In total, Tornado Cash processed $137.6 million worth of crypto assets related to NFT marketplaces during the year.
Overall, experts estimate that since 2017, the volume of money laundering via non-tradable tokens is $8 million (0.02% of market turnover).
“While crime accounts for a small percentage of total NFT trading, it has a disproportionate impact on the industry’s reputation and undermines the quality of service for law-abiding users,” Elliptic said in a statement.
Recall that in June, trading volume on NFT marketplaces decreased by 74% compared to the previous month, to $1.04 billion.
In July, the indicator lost another 26% to reach $647.2 million.
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I’m Sandra Torres, a passionate journalist and content creator. My specialty lies in covering the latest gadgets, trends and tech news for Div Bracket. With over 5 years of experience as a professional writer, I have built up an impressive portfolio of published works that showcase my expertise in this field.
