It should be noted that at times the cases of cryptocurrency thefts can be quite bizarre. For example, in May this year it became known how Gary James Harmon from Ohio received just over four years in prison because he stole 712 bitcoins from his brother.

That said, the victim in this case is not all clear with the law either. According to reporters, Larry’s brother was once arrested for running the Helix cryptomixer, used to intermingle cryptocurrencies and hide the trail of their owners. This platform processed 350,000 bitcoin transactions between 2014 and 2017.

How much cryptocurrency is being stolen

In the first quarter of 2023, hackers were able to steal around $400 million in 40 major attacks. This is almost 70 per cent less than the result of the corresponding quarter of 2022. According to Decrypt’s sources, the number of attacks remained about the same, but the average damage from them dropped from $30 million to $10.5 million.

Moreover, the amount of funds stolen in the first quarter of this year was lower than in any of the quarters of 2022. In the report, analysts mentioned three main factors in shaping the positive trend. The first is sanctions against cryptomixer Tornado Cash.

As a reminder, the cryptomixer has been one of the most popular platforms for hiding traces of cryptocurrency origins in the blockchain. Tornado Cash has become an important tool in the arsenal of fraudsters and hackers, so radical action by US government agencies against it was only a matter of time.

The second important factor is the activity of regulators. In December 2022, the US Department of Justice arrested Abraham Eisenberg, charging him with market manipulation and hacking. At least $114 million is known to have been stolen by Eisenberg from the decentralised exchange Mango Markets.

The suspect declared his willingness to make a deal with the investigation and even returned almost half of the stolen amount. However, he still received a heavy sentence. Experts believe that this precedent has “scared off” many abusers in the crypto-sphere, as the latter have realized the inevitability of punishment with digital assets in some cases.

The third factor is more frequent incidents with hackers recovering funds. For example, in April 2023, an Euler Finance protocol hacker recovered $200 million in funds from a platform hack. Similarly, a Tender.fi project hacker who stole $1.5 million negotiated an $850,000 reward for finding the bug with the team.

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Unfortunately, the activity of fraudsters is unlikely to be curtailed in the near future, with it taking ever more sophisticated forms. In particular, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) warned the day before about the spread of job ads with fake information about jobs in the crypto-industry.

US citizens and others should be aware of false advertisements related to human trafficking. According to the FBI, victims were “held against their will, intimidated and forced to participate in international cryptocurrency investment scams”.

The trap for most of the victims is in the Asian region. They are offered a wide range of jobs – tech support specialists, customer service call centres and even employees in beauty salons. However, once they arrive in another country, applicants are “forced” to participate in cryptocurrency scam investment schemes.

Over the past few years, the FBI has been heavily involved in a large number of anti-fraud platform incidents. Earlier this month, for example, the FBI’s Detroit office and the National Police of Ukraine “conducted a coordinated and court-ordered activity”. It culminated in the arrest and closure of nine illegal digital asset exchanges, Cointelegraph reported.


This is not the first time that FBI officials have warned citizens about cryptocurrency fraud. In particular, last year, representatives of the body reported the spread of a "love scheme" to steal digital assets. In short, victims are lured into communicating under the pretext of romance and then being asked to invest in fake cryptocurrency or using a fake website.

Also this year, the FBI apprehended a cryptocurrency scammer who was stealing expensive NFTs. What's particularly funny is that a photo of an expensive watch got on his trail. Read more about the story in a separate article.



Looks like the actions of law enforcement are really paying off little by little, as the cryptocurrency hacking activity is getting lower. And this is good news, as such statistics will have a positive effect on the reputation of the digital asset niche in the future. Accordingly, there will now be even fewer reasons for ordinary people to ignore crypto.


Find more useful and interesting information about cryptocurrencies in our chat room. There we discuss other important events that affect the world of decentralized assets in one way or another.