Cybercriminals are now taking advantage of the current cryptocurrency craze to deceive potential victims and steal their digital money. In fact, a report from Chainalysis found that hackers exploited vulnerabilities within crypto platforms or used traditional scam methods such as ‘carpet pulling’, obtaining over $ 7.7 billion ( Rs 58,698 crore approximately) of cryptocurrency to victims in 2021. Here we list all the major cryptocurrency scams that have occurred this year.
Poly Network
In August 2021, hackers pulled off one of the biggest cryptocurrency heists ever by stealing $ 613 million in digital coins from the Poly Network token exchange. However, the hackers returned $ 260 million in tokens in less than 24 hours.
For the uninitiated, Poly Network is a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform that facilitates peer-to-peer transactions allowing users to transfer or trade cryptocurrencies on multiple blockchains. For example, a client could use Poly Network to transfer tokens such as Bitcoin from the Ethereum blockchain to the Binance Smart Chain, perhaps seeking access to a specific application.
Attackers stole funds from more than 12 different cryptocurrencies, including Ether and a type of Bitcoin, according to Chainalysis.
Interestingly, at first the hacker refused to hand over the stolen crypto assets. That was until Poly Network asked them to publish it, spat $ 500,000 as a gesture to find the system’s vulnerability and even offered them a job. Poly Network later revealed that the so-called “Mr. White Hat” gave them the private key.
CrepeRabbit
On May 19, the PancakeBunny hack took place, cybercriminals raised around $ 45 million in a flash loan exploit and dropped the price of Bunny tokens by 96% from $ 220 to around $ 10 in 24 hours .
A flash loan is an unsecured loan where no collateral is required from the borrower, it is unsecured. We have to understand that it is automated so that the lenders automatically get their loan amount within a specific time frame. However, fraudsters take advantage of these loans by raising the price of coins and then withdrawing all of their investments causing the crypto market to fall.
The hacker borrowed more than $ 700 million in Binance Coin (BNB) from seven PancakeBunny loan pools. They used it to manipulate the price of BNB which caused the price of Bunny coins to crack. After paying off the flash loans, the hacker ended up with 114,631 BNB worth around $ 45 million.
On July 16, the company’s new Polygon blockchain fork, PolyBunny, was also hit, with a flash loan attack on Polybunny’s $ 2.1 million, dropping its tokens from $ 10 to less than 2. $.
Bitmart
Hackers stole $ 196 million from crypto trading platform Bitmart, the company called the attack a “large-scale security breach.” A mix of over 20 tokens have been stolen, including cryptocurrencies like BSC-USD, Binance Coin (BNB), BNBBPay (BPay) and Safemoon, while large amounts of Moonshot, Floki and BabyDoge have also been compromised. .
Vulcan Forged
The gaming non-fungible token (NFT) platform for winning Vulcan Forged said it has repaid more than $ 140 million (roughly Rs 1,062 crore) in cryptocurrency to all investors, a day after its platform -form was compromise. Cybercriminals have stolen assets in Ether, Polygon as well as the native Vulcan Forged cryptocurrency called “PYR”.
Vulcan Forged offers more than six blockchain games and also has an active NFT marketplace and its own decentralized exchange, where users can trade its ‘PYR’ token. Vulcan Forged CEO Jaime Thomson admitted to the breach on Twitter and called December 13 “the darkest day in Vulcan Forged history.”
Finance Cream
2021 was a bad year for Cream Finance, not only did hackers take home $ 130 million in this October 2021 attack, but it was the third attack the company suffered during the year. . In February, hackers stole $ 37 million and in August, $ 29 million.
The latest attack saw hackers exploit what was believed to be a vulnerability in the DeFi platform’s flash lending system. They were able to steal all of Cream Finance’s tokens and assets on the Ethereum blockchain, which amounted to $ 130 million.
BadgerDAO
Cybercriminals have stolen at least $ 120.3 million (around Rs 900 crore) in cryptocurrency by hacking the Badger DAO Decentralized Finance Protocol (DeFi). The attack was identified on November, 1st.
Badger DAO, often referred to as BADGER, is a decentralized, open-source, automated organization that focuses on developing infrastructure and products to simplify the overall use of Bitcoin, across Ethereum as well as many other blockchains.
The hack, first discovered by blockchain security firm PeckShield, found the missing funds. According to the security company, the company has lost at least 2,100 Bitcoin and 151 Ethereum.
MonoX
At least $ 31 million (approximately Rs 226 crore) in cryptocurrency has been Fly by hacking the MonoX multi-channel decentralized exchange. The attack was first identified on December 1.
MonoX Finance is a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform that focuses on the development of infrastructure and products to simplify the overall use of Bitcoin, Ethereum as well as many other blockchains.
Among the lost funds are $ 18.2 million in Ethereum and $ 10.5 million in Matic. There are also smaller amounts of several other tokens, including cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Chainlink, Unit Protocol, Aavegotchi, and Immutable X. It should be noted that Bitcoin is currently trading at $ 47,564 (around Rs 35 lakh ) per coin, the Ethereum present value is $ 3,974 (approx Rs 2.90 lakh) per token.
Squid Game Token
Millions of dollars vanished within minutes after investors crammed into a new cryptocurrency inspired by Netflix’s popular survival series “Squid Game,” to see its value drop to nearly zero in a few short hours.
Popular crypto exchange Binance has launched an investigation into the Squid token and froze the wallet addresses of token developers, calling it a potential “carpet-draw” case. A rug pull is a malicious maneuver in the cryptocurrency industry where crypto developers abandon a project and run away with investor funds. In the case of Squid crypto, it is estimated that the creators disappeared with $ 3.3 million (around Rs 22 crore).
Stolen Bored Monkeys NFT
Calvin Becerra, owner of three NFT of the Yacht Club Bored Ape has been deceived by fraudsters under the pretext of providing technical support.
For those who don’t know, BAYC NFTs are a popular collection of 10,000 unique bored monkeys created by Yuga Labs. This collection has recorded more than half a billion dollars in sales to date, according to measurements from dappradar.com. It should be noted that the minimum price for a BAYC NFT starts at 52 Ethereum or around $ 210,000. Becerra claims the three NFT Bored Ape he owned were over $ 1 million.