2023 so far has been a year of recovery for cryptocurrency after a chaotic 2022, with prices of digital assets like Bitcoin up over 80% on the year as of June 30. And that’s not the only good news for the industry. Our data shows that cryptocurrency-related crime is down significantly this year. Through the end of June, crypto inflows to known illicit entities – not including inflows to entities that have been sanctioned or subject to special measures – are down 65% compared to where they were at the same time in 2022. Inflows to risky entities (made up primarily of mixers and high-risk exchanges) are down 42%. Of course, transaction volumes are down across the board, but declines are much less severe for legitimate services, which have seen just a 28% drop in inflows. In other words, there’s been a market pullback, but illicit crypto transaction volume is falling much more than legitimate crypto transaction volume. Inflows to illicit addresses are down in nearly every category, but no form of crypto crime has suffered more than scams. Through June, crypto scammers have taken in nearly $3.3 billion less in 2023 than they did in 2022, for a total of just over $1.0 billion on the year.
Full H1 2023 crypto crime report : inflows to illicit entities drop 65% YoY, scammers net ~$3.3B less than H1 2022, and ransomware took $175.8M more than H1 2022.
OODA has been compiling a comprehensive Web3 incident database based on our research to categorize what compromises are taking place as well as document the root causes that plague Cryptos, DeFi, NFTs, and Web3 in general. Tracking root causes provides comprehensive insights into how innovators can create robust cyber risk management approaches and reduce the potential for consequential attacks. You can access the OODA comprehensive Crypto Incident tracker here.
