Cybercriminals focused on the crypto sector stole a record $14 billion last year, according to data from analytics firm Chainalysis.
Scam-related revenues increased by 82% and amounted to $7.8 billion in cryptos.
Analysts have highlighted the growth of crypto fraud in 2021 was mainly driven by the development of the DeFi segment.
Hackers stole around $3.2 billion, 516% more than in 2020. Attackers stole 72% of this amount from DeFi protocols. Experts have also noted an increase in the use of the latter for money laundering.
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The total volume of crypto transactions has increased fivefold to $15.8 trillion. This is 567% more than in 2020, analysts have said. The firm has noted that growth in the legal use of digital currencies is far greater than growth in illegal transactions.
Transactions using illegal addresses fell to an all-time low: these accounted for 0.15% of the total.