Chainalysis reports a substantial fall in ransomware operators’ bitcoin revenues

In 2022, ransomware operators’ revenues from extortion fell by 40% — to $456.8 million, though this does not signify a decline in the overall number of attacks. The information is contained in Chainalysis’s fresh report.

In 2021, hackers received a record $766 million in ransom payments for data decryption.

In 48.3% of cases last year, ransomware operators withdrew funds via centralized exchanges — up from 39.3% in 2021.

During 2022, including sanctioned Tornado Cash, the use of mixers rose from 11.6% to 15% in 2022.

At the same time, ransomware operators’ transactions on high-risk crypto exchanges fell from 10.9% to 6.7%.

Chainalysis notes that many companies, out of necessity, tightened cybersecurity measures, turned to risk insurance, and became less willing to pay ransoms.

Advances in blockchain analytics tools that allow tracing illicit transactions almost in real time did not help criminals.

Analysts indicated that one reason for the drop in ransomware operators’ revenues could be the active countermeasures against this threat by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC):

“Given the potential sanctions, there is an additional threat of legal consequences for paying [the hackers].”

Fortinet, meanwhile, recorded a sharp rise in the number of unique ransomware strains. At the same time, many malware variants are being developed by the same criminals.

Chainalysis noted that the actual figures for ransomware revenues are likely much higher, as not every attacker-controlled cryptocurrency address is identified.

In July 2022, the number of ransomware attacks fell by 23% amid the drop in Bitcoin’s price.

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