 
 
According to a new report, despite the FTX implosion sinking over $2 billion of investors’ money in the past month, close to double that amount was lost to scams and rug-pulls in 2022.
Published by cybersecurity and data privacy firm Privacy Affairs, the report revealed that the five biggest crypto losses, scams and hacks of 2022, ranked by the amount of money lost or stolen ($100 million and above), accounted for nearly $3.5 billion.
As of November 2022, the collapse of FTX had become the biggest case of money lost, with between $1 to $2 billion worth of cryptocurrency evaporating, while Axie Infinity’s Ronin Network was second in place with $615 million, followed by the Wormhole crypto bridge scam with $320 million.
Hackers stole $1.9 billion in cryptocurrency between January and July, 2022-which is a 37% increase in the same period last year. Accordingly, the report noted that 97% of all stolen cryptocurrency came from DeFi protocols in Q1 2022. Bitcoin, Tether and Ether emerged as the most preferred cryptocurrencies by scammers to set up their cons, with social media platforms led by Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and Telegram being the most used playgrounds for crypto scams.
Notably, the firm cautioned over a spike in cryptocurrency flash loan scams. Flash loans allow users to borrow large amounts of virtual funds for a short period without collateral. Attackers who secure the loans and…
