It should be noted that risks to cryptocurrency investors are found almost everywhere. Specifically, according to analytics firm Elliptic, users in the decentralized finance industry have already lost about $10.5 billion in 2021. Fraudsters and hackers are to blame. Read more about these disappointing statistics in a separate article.

Threats to the cryptocurrency industry

The authors of the report gave an example of 50 recent incidents of hacking of cloud platforms. In 86 percent of them, hackers used the acquired computing power specifically for mining. Here is a quote on the subject, in which experts share their view of the situation in the coin niche. It was published by Decrypt.

Attackers have been caught mining cryptocurrencies by hacking into cloud services. Google’s cybersecurity team provides information about this so that organisations can take appropriate measures to protect their cloud ecosystems.


That is, in essence, scammers need only the computing power that goes into mining digital assets. As a reminder, they allow you to pick up solutions for complex cryptographic functions that serve as a link between a previous block and a new block in the blockchain. Because they contain a list of transactions that have taken place, it is the search for solutions and, accordingly, block mining that ensures that the cryptocurrency network is operational.

Note that it is possible to mine crypto honestly and without problems yourself, even with a single video card. We traditionally recommend to do it at the 2Miners mining pool, which has clear instructions on how to start mining and supports many languages at the same time.


Google Cloud

The main goals of hackers are obvious – to gain profit and to drive traffic. Among other methods of attackers experts highlighted the creation of ransomware, fake content, spam and DDoS-attacks. Recall that a month ago Google’s cybersecurity department also sounded the alarm about YouTube account theft. Here’s a quote from their representatives on the matter.

The channel name, profile picture and all content are being replaced with cryptocurrency information in order to impersonate a major tech company or brand.

An example of a fake cryptocurrency giveaway on YouTube

In such cases, broadcasts from stolen channels become the hackers’ main source of ‘income’. They already had a subscriber base, so the broadcasts quickly gained visitors. They invited viewers to participate in a “free” cryptocurrency giveaway for a small “donation”. This is a common method of stealing crypto not only on YouTube, but also on other social platforms.

That is, a person is trivially offered to send a certain amount of coins to a specified wallet and supposedly receive double the amount of cryptocurrency. Of course, such promises remain just that, and the scammers keep the coins for themselves. However, such schemes are still working.

We clarified a recent situation: scammers are now particularly active in exploiting the reputation of Bitcoin fan Michael Saylor. His company MicroStategy is the largest holder of BTC among public companies: the equivalent investment is 114,042 coins worth $6.53 billion at today's exchange rate.

Here, the criminals also promise to double the sent cryptocurrency, linking it to the company’s alleged stock and good results. However, it ends up being a loss of money for newcomers.

Fake cryptocurrency giveaways on YouTube

It is important to note that YouTube technically contributes to the successful results of the scammers’ activity. Now some videos don’t display the number of dislikes underneath them. And since the likes are scammed by bots, a newbie might actually believe such an initiative.

Hidden dislikes under cryptocurrency scam videos


We believe that scammer activity is an integral part of the cryptocurrency industry. Since the latter is too young, it attracts newcomers who are unaware of the specifics of the niche and are willing to believe in various giveaways of money. It is unlikely to get rid of the problem completely, but it will become less acute over time.


To avoid falling into the trap of such scammers, don’t forward your coins to anyone and remember that promises of something “free” in the cryptosphere most often end up being cheated. For even more interesting information on this subject, check out our Millionaire Cryptochat.