In 2022, $3.8 billion in cryptocurrencies were stolen

The cryptocurrency theft had an increase during 2022, in the period there was a historic rise in the number of cryptocurrency thefts, the stolen assets amount to 3.8 billion dollars, according to the 2023 Cryptocrime Report of Chainalysisblockchain analytics firm.

While in 2021 cybercriminals stole $3.2 billion in cryptocurrencies. In 2022, hacking activity peaked in March and October, the latter being the month with the largest crypto asset theft, with $775 million stolen in 32 separate attacks.

Illegal thefts were reported primarily from Decentralized Finance (DeFi) protocols and by North Korea-linked attackers. the platforms DeFi They are financial services that work through blockchain technology, that is, they do not depend on intermediaries to carry out transactions. These protocols have been one of the main targets of attackers, representing 82.1% of all stolen cryptocurrencies, the equivalent of $3.1 billion.

The opening of the data. as well as the transparency with which DeFi-based platforms operate make them a target for hackers, since they can search for and take advantage of vulnerabilities to attack at a specific time and thus maximize their thefts.

Previously, Chainalisys pointed out that during 2022, the total of illicit operations with cryptocurrencies amounted to 20.100 million dollars, which represented an increase of 17% compared to what was registered in 2021, when 14,000 million dollars were recorded.

“Last year we saw criminal activity that reached historic volumes, that record came from new sanctions that were imposed by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC, for its acronym in English) and countries like Mexico and the rest of Latin America we can learn that, since we need our regulators to have visibility of criminal activity”, commented Daniel Cartolin, spokesperson for Chainalysis in Latin America.

The firm indicated that 44% of the volume of illicit transactions came from activities associated with sanctioned entities, in the same period that OFAC launched the most ambitious and difficult to apply cryptographic sanctions to date.

Although the illegal activity detected broke a record, the analysis indicated that compared to the volume of the cryptocurrency ecosystem, it barely represented 0.24% of the total transactions with these tools.

regulation will be consolidated

Following the publication of this chapter, Chainalysis indicates that many of the insolvencies of the platforms and the market in general in the past year were due to the lack of transparency in the actions and risk profiles of the centralized cryptocurrency platforms.

In response, Cartolin indicates that there is a greater development of the existing regulation for platforms or exchanges that do not operate with sufficient transparency in their movements, especially in Brazil and Colombia, progress is perceived in terms of specific regulation within Latin America.

“It is vital to understand what happens with criminal activity to make the designations of which entities can be malicious for the sector, because they are associated with money laundering, among others, such as exchanges that were sanctioned abroad for said activities. In Latin America, we have in favor a regulation that is beginning to take shape,” said Cartolin.

The spokesperson for the analysis firm added that this year the players in the cryptocurrency sector expect it to be regulation. They anticipate that the measures will generate an environment of protection and trust in digital assets, in order to have a greater adoption.

North Korea

On the other hand, Chainalysis points out that hackers linked to North Korea, such as those of the cybercriminal group “Lazarus Group”, have been the most prolific in terms of hacking cryptocurrencies, in 2022 they stole 1.7 billion dollars in crypto assets from through various hacks.

Of the reported volume, it is specified that 1,100 million dollars were stolen from DeFi protocols, for which reason the form qualified North Korea as the region with the highest tendency to hack these platforms in 2022.