BeInCrypto takes a look at the top trends for cryptocurrency scams and the largest incidents of 2022.
Between January and November 2022, hackers absconded with $4.3 billion worth of cryptocurrency, according to a recent report. This accounts for a roughly 37% increase from 2021 year-on-year. But while the overall amount increased, 2022 had the lowest individual transfers to crypto scams over the past four years.
Trending Crypto Scams
Just like last year, most cryptocurrency hacks and scams in 2022 resulted from attacks on DeFi protocols, exchange platforms, and blockchain bridges. Roughly 72% of cryptocurrency stolen by hackers in 2021 came from DeFi protocols, while 21% of all crypto hacks that year exploited vulnerabilities in DeFi. This year, roughly 97% of all stolen cryptocurrency was acquired from DeFi protocols. Meanwhile, breaches on cross-chain bridges account for an estimated loss of $1.4 billion in 2022.
According to Solidus Labs, 2022 saw a 20% increase in crypto scams compared to 2021, with rugpulls growing in prominence. In 2021, investors lost $2.8 billion lost to rugpulls, in which investment funds are suddenly stolen by project creators. Meanwhile, 2022 had more than 188,000 incidents on various blockchains, such as BNB and Ethereum. Solidus Labs also reported that 12% of all BEP-20 tokens were linked to scams, meaning Binance’s BNB Chain experienced the most scams this year.
One type of cryptocurrency scam on the rise this year was so-called pig…
