The revenue from cryptocurrency scams for 2022 also decreased by 65% to $1.6 billion this year, from where it was through the end of July in 2021, as the global economic depression continues.

The revenue from cryptocurrency scams for 2022 also decreased by 65% to $1.6 billion this year, from where it was through the end of July in 2021, as the global economic depression continues.

According to Blockchain monitoring company Chainalysis, since January 2022, scam revenue has decreased roughly in step with the price of bitcoin.

The report stated, “It is not just scam revenue that is declining; the total number of individual transfers to schemes so far in 2022 is the lowest it has been in the previous four years.

Based on such figures, it appears that fewer people than ever are victims of bitcoin fraud.

The decline in asset prices may be a contributing factor in this situation, making bitcoin frauds less alluring to potential victims.

The results revealed that there are fewer new, inexperienced users in the market now that prices are down than when prices are increasing and they are lured in by hype and the promise of quick gains.

The cryptocurrency markets have had a turbulent year, with large price drops in May and June across all currencies.

At the moment, the price of one bitcoin fluctuates between $20,000 and $24,000.

According to the research, “generally, illegal activity appears to be more durable in the face of price declines: Illicit quantities are down just 15% year over year, compared to 36% for legitimate volumes.”

Large outliers like PlusToken, which made over $2 billion from victims in 2019, or Finiko, which made over $1.5 billion in 2021, frequently drive the scam industry’s earnings.

No scams have been reported so far in 2022 that is even close to either of them.

 Only 24% of Finiko’s earnings through the end of July 2021, or $273 million, was made from the greatest scam of 2022 thus far.

However, “some anomaly could emerge or be detected before the end of the year and reverse the trend of diminishing scam revenue that we presently see,” according to the report.

Darknet market income has decreased dramatically in 2022 and is already 43% lower than it was through the first seven months of 2021.

Activities involving stolen money and hacking are expected to increase in 2022.

Cryptocurrency theft until July 2022 was $1.9 billion, up from slightly under $1.2 billion at the same point in 2021 as a result of service hacks.

With a $190 million attack of the cross-chain bridge Nomad and a $5 million hack of numerous Solana wallets already occurred in the first week of August, this trend doesn’t seem to be changing anytime soon.

Reference