Cryptocurrency thefts, scams hit $1.7 billion in 2018: report

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

BUSINESS NEWS JANUARY 29, 2019 / 9:35 AM / UPDATED 35 MINUTES AGO

Cryptocurrency thefts, scams hit $1.7 billion in 2018: report

Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss
3 MIN READ

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Cryptocurrencies stolen from exchanges and scammed from investors surged more than 400 percent in 2018 to around $1.7 billion, according to a report from U.S.-based cyber security firm CipherTrace released on Tuesday.

Of the $1.7 billion, the report, which looks at criminal activity in the digital currency market, said $950 million constituted thefts from cryptocurrency exchanges and infrastructure services such as wallets, up nearly 260 percent from $266 million in 2017.

Korea and Japan were home to most of the thefts from exchanges, or 58 percent, throughout 2018.

The numbers on crypto theft surprised many observers given the price declines in digital currencies in 2018. The market capitalization with more than 1,600 digital currencies was $112 billion in January, 2019, down more than 80 percent from its peak a year earlier.

In addition to those thefts, the research found that investors and exchange users lost about $725 million in cryptocurrency in 2018 to exit scams such as fraudulent initial coin offerings, phony exchange hacks, and Ponzi schemes.

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Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-crypto-currency-crime/cryptocurrency-thefts-scams-hit-1-7-billion-in-2018-report-idUSKCN1PN1SQ

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1. Sounds like a Libertarian paradise!

You can go ahead and follow your dreams, since there's no nanny state telling you not to invest your money with that Nigerian prince's nephew.