The number of crimes involving the theft of cryptoassets increased considerably in 2021. According to a report by Chainalysis, digital currency scams grew by 82%.
Following the expansion of the crypto market over the last year, which recorded a capitalization volume of US$ 3 trillion, cryptoasset scams have moved US$ 14 billion around the world.
Among various scams, rup pulls represent the most significant cryptoasset market losses. In total, this type of fraud moved US$ 2.8 billion in 2021.
By 2020, other types of scams dominated the crypto market, moving almost US$ 5 billion in cryptoassets. On the other hand, in 2019, that number approached US$ 10 billion.
Chainalysis also presented data on money laundering with digital currencies. In total, US$ 8.6 billion was laundered through cryptoasset currencies in the last year. In addition, the research states that since 2017 more than US$ 33 billion has been moved in the crypto market for money laundering purposes.
Meanwhile, Brazil moved US$140 billion in cryptoassets in 2021, reaching the 11th position among the countries with the highest annual volume in digital currency transactions.
In other words, considered the Latin American country with the highest volume of crypto assets, only 1% of transactions in Brazil represent scams in the crypto market. The report points out that these frauds are concentrated in exchanges 53.5% and Decentralized Finance (DeFi) projects 44.1%.
Chainalysis is a platform for analyzing data recorded via blockchain to track transactions. In addition to scams related to cryptoassets, Chainalysis has a tool capable of identifying transactions through mixers, used to cover up transactions with digital currencies.
