Preliminary estimates suggest that losses from fraud in the crypto industry reached $9.9 billion in 2024, though the actual figure may set new records. These findings were shared by Chainalysis experts in the report Crypto Scam Revenue 2024.
According to Chainalysis observations, scammer activity has grown by an average of 24% annually over the past four years. If this trend continues, actual losses for 2024 should amount to around $12.4 billion.
High-yield investment scams accounted for 50.2% of all fraudulent revenue. Compared to the previous year, perpetrators earned 36.6% less.
“Pig butchering” schemes ranked second with 33.2%. Total revenue in this niche grew by 40% compared to last year, while the number of deposits increased by 210%.
Experts believe the disproportionate growth is due to scammers prioritizing the expansion of their victim pool over the volume of individual payments.
To cash out, perpetrators continue to prefer centralized exchanges, but with the rise of scammer activity across various blockchains, including Ethereum, Tron, and Solana, the popularity of DeFi protocols is increasing.
Chainalysis also noted the use of generative AI technologies by scammers. According to specialists, such tools significantly simplify and reduce the cost of operations for perpetrators.
In particular, AI facilitates the creation of fake identities to bypass online identification procedures. According to Alterya, fully verified accounts were involved in 85% of fraud cases.
Moreover, generative AI enables scammers to quickly create content such as websites and advertisements for use in schemes.
Earlier, analysts at Merkle Science described the main tactics of crypto scammers in 2024.