Singapore is the ninth most targeted country for crypto fraud, with four hacks and breaches worth US$14.6 million since 2011, new research by CoinJournal finds.
The US is the most commonly targeted country, with 13 hacks and breaches.
CoinJournal looked at available data around major breaches and fraud since 2011 to reveal which countries had experienced the most violations and how crypto fraud has seen a record number of incidents in 2022. The research considered the most costly cases of crypto scams, the most commonly stolen coins, the most common method of scams, the most targeted countries, and how much crypto scams have increased.
The ten most targeted countries for crypto fraud:
With 120 incidents, 2022 was the worst for crypto fraud and breaches. This was 26 more than the previous year.
The year 2021 saw the biggest rise (over 200 per cent) in incidents from 2020. There were 94 incidents during 2021, and the total funds lost were the highest in the last ten years, at US$4.6 billion.
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With 31 incidents, the third-highest number of crypto breaches was in 2020. This was an increase of just under 20 per cent of the 26 accumulated during the previous year. Just under US$1.5 billion was lost during these 31 incidents.
The costliest crypto scam in 2022 was by Plus Token, where almost US$3 billion worth of Bitcoin and Ethereum was stolen. Plus Token was a Ponzi scheme disguised as an investment programme.
The Thodex scam came in second. A police report revealed the Thodex CEO had allegedly fled from Turkey with US$2 billion worth of cryptocurrency, leaving its 700,000 users scammed.
WoToken was another Ponzi scheme which defrauded US$1 billion from more than 700,000 users. WoToken was dubbed ‘Plus Token 2.0’ by the media due to its similarities with the Plus Token scam. It was also revealed that one of the members of WoToken was part of the Plus Token scam.
With 50 incidents, BSC was the most stolen coin in 2022. The second most commonly stolen coin was ETH (33 times).
The most stolen cryptocurrency is Bitcoin (BTC) — stolen in 94 crypto scams. Despite it being the most popular and valuable cryptocurrency, BTC was only stolen three times in 2022.
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Ethereum (ETH) was the second most common cryptocurrency stolen (84 times). Ethereum was also the second most stolen currency in 2022 (stolen 33 times).
The most common crypto attack was DeFi breaches (167 incidents), with almost US$4 million lost. They were also the most common type of breaches during 2022, with 80 DeFi breaches in 2022 alone.
The second most common type of crypto attack was breaches. Within the 123 breaches, over US$3 million was stolen or lost. Breaches appear to have become less common in 2022, with just four attacks happening out of the 122.
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