Ransomware actors are on track to have their most profitable year yet in 2024, with crypto inflows in the first half of the year reaching an astounding $460 million, as reported by Chainalysis. This prediction was made in the firm’s recently released 2024 Crypto Crime Mid-Year Update.
In 2023, ransomware groups raked in over $1 billion, with $449 million amassed by the end of June alone. The trend continues this year, with the largest single ransom payment ever recorded at a whopping $75 million to the Dark Angels group.
Despite significant law enforcement efforts that disrupted notorious cybercrime groups like LockBit and ALPHV/BlackCat, substantial sums continue to flow to predominantly Russian cybercriminals.
Moreover, Chainalysis has observed a resurgence in crypto theft through hacking, with threat actors shifting their focus back to centralized exchanges after a four-year period of targeting decentralized entities like DeFi services and cross-chain bridges. The cumulative value stolen through hacking in 2024 has already surpassed $1.6 billion by the end of July, marking an 84% increase compared to the same period last year. Interestingly, the number of hacking incidents has only slightly risen by 2.8% year-over-year.
Chainalysis highlighted the growing use of sophisticated social engineering tactics by threat actors, including thousands of North Korean operatives posing as IT job applicants at exchanges to carry out crypto theft.
Eric Jardine, lead researcher on cybercrime at Chainalysis, emphasized the importance of disrupting cybercrime supply chains, which encompass attackers, affiliates, partners, infrastructure service providers, launderers, and cashout points. By leveraging blockchain technology, law enforcement agencies can trace illicit funds and disrupt criminal operations more effectively.
Despite the concerning trends, overall figures for crypto crime indicate a year-to-date decline in profits of nearly 20% annually, dropping from $20.9 billion to $16.7 billion. However, analysts anticipate this figure to rise as more illicit addresses are identified, leveraging Chainalysis Signals intelligence based on on-chain data and heuristics to detect suspicious activities.
As the landscape of crypto crime evolves, vigilance and proactive measures are essential to combatting illicit activities and safeguarding the integrity of the digital asset ecosystem.