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Despite crypto prices falling off a cliff in 2018, the U.S. dollar value of crypo stolen from exchanges or investors surged by more than 400% in 2018 to $1.7b. Roughly 57% of losses were comprised of thefts from exchanges and wallets, with the remaining 43% comprised of "exit scams" (e.g. fraudulent ICOs or Ponzi schemes).
"These numbers only represent the loot from crypto crimes that CipherTrace can validate; we have little doubt that the true number of crypto asset losses is much larger," the cybersecurity firm said in the report. Whereas in the first three quarters, thefts by hackers dominated the crypto crime scene, the fourth quarter was mostly about inside jobs or fraud, CipherTrace said. "We have been seeing new types of crimes that involve money laundering," said Dave Jevans, chief executive officer of CipherTrace, told Reuters in an interview. Jevans is also the chairman of the Anti-Phishing Working Group, a global organization that aims to help solve cyber crime. "So we have seen in 2018 a lot more exit scams where companies disappear and steal people's money. There's huge increase in that," he added.
https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2019/01/29/business/29reuters-crypto-currency-crime.html
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