Crypto Scam Revenue Up 81% in 2021, Hits $7.7 Billion: Chainalysis

The explosion of rug pulls in the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem over the past year helped to propel revenue from crypto scams to $7.7 billion in 2021, according to blockchain data firm Chainalysis. From a report: Per Chainalysis' 2022 Crypto Crime Report, revenues from crypto scams in 2021 were up 81% on the previous year, with rug pulls accounting for 37% of all crypto scam revenue -- up from 1% in 2020. In all, rug pulls -- in which developers build a seemingly legitimate crypto project and then abscond with investors' money -- accounted for more than $2.8 billion worth of stolen crypto in 2021. Chainalysis highlighted the fact that code audits -- which would catch the vulnerabilities that enable fraudulent DeFi projects to drain their liquidity pools -- are not required to list a project on decentralized exchanges (DEXs), hence their prevalence in the DeFi sector.

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