Latest news with #Chainalysis'
13-05-2025
- Business
Winners of Trump's meme coin contest potentially include foreign investors
The race to win tickets to an exclusive crypto dinner gala with President Donald Trump at his private golf club in Virginia on May 22 ended with top 220 holders of the Trump meme coin winning invitations to the black tie gala, the coin's official X account announced Monday. A " leaderboard" of the top 220 holders appearing on the website did not display the identities of the winners, but it listed numerous wallets that some crypto experts have linked to possible foreign individuals and entities, heightening concerns about potential conflicts of interest arising from the Trump family's businesses and foreign interests. According to the meme coin's website, the top 25 "VIP holders" were also invited to what it described as an "Exclusive Reception before Dinner" and a "Special VIP Tour." As the Trump family stands to potentially take in tens of millions of dollars from the coin's transactions and possibly even more from its ownership of the coin, the price of Trump's meme coin has been in constant fluctuation over the past three weeks, with numerous supporters and crypto enthusiasts flocking to purchase the coin to secure a seat at the gala while numerous others sell the coin to profit off the hype. The coin's price dropped rapidly on Monday as the competition ended, and was priced at $12.59 as of 4 p.m. ET. When the gala competition was first announced last year, the coin's price jumped by more than 55% and later reached a high of nearly $16.42, according to While fluctuations in the Trump coin's price have resulted in massive profits for a fortunate few, hundreds of thousands of investors have reportedly lost money on the coin. According to CNBC's reporting of blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis' data, roughly 764,000 crypto wallets have lost money on Trump meme coin investments, while 58 wallets have made millions from their Trump coin investments. Although the coin's website had earlier advertised a "Special VIP White House tour" for the top 25 coin holders, as of Monday afternoon it simply said "Special VIP tour," without mentioning the White House. Additionally, the website included a disclaimer saying the tour is being arranged by the Fight Fight Fight LLC, and that the president himself is appearing as a "guest." In its social media announcement about the conclusion of the contest, the post also announced a "rewards points program" and the awarding of "exclusive NFTs" for the winners. According to crypto experts, the wallet of the top coin holder -- nicknamed "Sun" and currently holding roughly $16.6 million worth of the Trump meme coin -- is owned by a foreign crypto exchange advised by Chinese billionaire Justin Sun, who recently moderated a panel discussion between Eric Trump and Zack Witkoff at a crypto conference in Dubai, where Witkoff announced the other Trump family crypto venture, World Liberty Financial, had partnered in a $2 billion business deal with an Abu Dahbi state-backed investment firm. Justin Sun did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News. Sun is also one of World Liberty Financials' biggest investors, purchasing $75 million worth of its coin the day before Trump's inauguration earlier this year. A month after that investment, SEC lawyers under the Trump administration moved to halt an alleged fraud case against Sun, who along with his companies has denied wrongdoing. The second top holder, a Singaporean entity identified by crypto experts as likely being MemeCore, and nicknamed "MeCo," has been more vocal about their race to secure a VIP ticket -- publicly soliciting followers to send Trump coin to their wallet so they can achieve "#1 on the $TRUMP leaderboard" and "conquer the entire meme space," with the promise of returning the tokens after the event. In all, the top 220 folders hold a total of 13.7 million Trump coins, valued at nearly $14 million as of 4 p.m. ET Monday, according to Notably, 17 out of the top 220 coin holders on the leaderboard, including one in the top 25, appeared to hold zero Trump coin as of Monday afternoon -- possibly meaning that they sold their holdings before the contest ended. Experts say this is possible because the top 220 holders were chosen based on "time weighted holdings," which were calculated based on "both the amount and duration" of one's holdings from April 23 through May 12. "The longer you hold, the higher your weighted score becomes," the website says. It's not clear if the zero Trump coin holders will get invited to the event.
Khaleej Times
20-02-2025
- Business
- Khaleej Times
Scammers target job seekers as fraud ecosystem becomes ‘industrialised'
Scammers received at least $9.9 billion in crypto revenues from their illicit activities, recent research shows. According to Chainalysis' 2025 Crypto Crime Report, this figure is estimated to rise to an all-time high of $12.4 billion as ongoing analysis uncovers more illicit activity. Chainalysis' findings also highlighted high-yield investment scams (50 per cent) and pig butchering (33 per cent) to be the two most prevalent fraud and scam types. Interestingly, despite pulling in half of all scam revenue in 2024, high-yield investment scam inflows declined by 36 per cent YoY. On the other hand, pig butchering revenue increased by almost 40 per cent YoY, and the number of deposits to pig butchering scams grew nearly 210 per cent YoY, potentially indicating an expansion of the victim pool. Conversely, the average deposit amount to pig butchering scams declined 55 per cent YoY. A pig butchering scam is a type of investment fraud where scammers build trust with victims over time before convincing them to invest in fake opportunities — often related to cryptocurrency, forex trading, or stocks. The term comes from the idea of 'fattening up the pig before slaughter,' meaning scammers groom their victims emotionally and financially before stealing their money. Jacqueline Burns Koven, head of cyber threat intelligence at Chainalysis said: 'The combination of lower payment amounts and increased deposits could indicate a change in strategy for pig butchering scams. Scammers could be spending less time priming targets, and therefore, receiving smaller payments, in exchange for targeting more victims.' This evolution of scammers' strategies is further evidenced in the growing number of employment or work-from-home scams that Chainalysis researchers observed. Though employment scam inflows represented less than one per cent of total on-chain value that scams received last year, thousands of people have unwittingly paid into fake job platforms. 'On the back of landmark initiatives, such as the UAE government's recent 'Remote Working in the UAE' report, the country's job market can be expected to see a rise in remote and hybrid work opportunities. While the majority of these will be legitimate, scammers will no doubt be keen to take advantage. The tools and techniques they have been honing in recent years with romance scams, can be easily adapted to now trick anxious, perhaps vulnerable, job seekers,' Koven stated. A major contributor to the growth in pig butchering and employment scams is the ongoing 'industrialisation' of the fraud ecosystem, epitomised in the staggering $375.9 million in cryptocurrency payments made to scam technology vendors on Huione Guarantee in 2024 alone, one of the most prolific marketplaces for illicit tools and services. When comparing crypto flows from 2021 through 2024 based on a compound annual growth rate, Huione scam infrastructure providers' revenue has increased exponentially, with AI service vendors' revenue growing by 1900 per cent, indicating an explosion in the use of AI technology to facilitate scams. These AI vendors offer technology that helps scammers impersonate others or generate realistic content that tricks victims. Through 2024, Chainalysis also tracked nearly $95 million in crypto payments to data vendors on the marketplace. These vendors sell stolen data such as personally identifiable information (PII) that bad actors can exploit for illicit purposes, often with information on 'quick kill' targets i.e. potential victims who are most susceptible to being scammed. 'With easy access to comprehensive victim databases, and AI-powered tools, scammers are better equipped than ever. It's time to move past the outdated notion of scammers as unsophisticated opportunists and recognise fraud as the thriving, highly organised ecosystem it is today. Effectively disrupting and dismantling it will require a coordinated effort from regulators, law enforcement, and the private sector,' added Koven. 'Both fraud detection and compliance rely on granular, real-time data. Efforts to combat scams must focus on both prevention and enforcement, requiring stronger investigative resources and greater enablement of government agencies and local authorities. As scams continue to evolve, investigators need access to deeper intelligence, faster insights, and specialised expertise to detect and disrupt these emerging threats,' Koven said.
Channel Post MEA
14-02-2025
- Business
- Channel Post MEA
Pig Butchering Scams Surge 40% in 2024: Chainalysis
2024 is set to be a record-year for scammers who received at least US$9.9 billion in crypto revenues from their illicit activities – a figure that is estimated to rise to an all-time high of US$12.4billion as ongoing analysis uncovers more illicit activity. These findings are part of Chainalysis' 2025 Crypto Crime Report research into scams, which also highlighted high-yield investment scams (50%) and pig butchering (33%) to be the two most prevalent fraud and scam types. Interestingly, despite pulling in half of all scam revenue in 2024, high-yield investment scam inflows declined by 36% YoY. On the other hand, pig butchering revenue increased by almost 40% YoY, and the number of deposits to pig butchering scams grew nearly 210% YoY, potentially indicating an expansion of the victim pool. Conversely, the average deposit amount to pig butchering scams declined 55% YoY. Offering insight into these findings, Jacqueline Burns Koven, Head of Cyber Threat Intelligence at Chainalysis said, 'The combination of lower payment amounts and increased deposits could indicate a change in strategy for pig butchering scams. Scammers could be spending less time priming targets, and therefore, receiving smaller payments, in exchange for targeting more victims.' This evolution of scammers' strategies is further evidenced in the growing number of employment or work-from-home scams that Chainalysis researchers observed. Though employment scam inflows represented less than 1% of total on-chain value that scams received last year, thousands of people have unwittingly paid into fake job platforms. 'On the back of landmark initiatives, such as the UAE government's recent ' Remote Working in the UAE' report, the country's job market can be expected to see a rise in remote and hybrid work opportunities. While the majority of these will be legitimate, scammers will no doubt be keen to take advantage. The tools and techniques they have been honing in recent years with romance scams, can be easily adapted to now trick anxious, perhaps vulnerable, job seekers,' Koven stated. A major contributor to the growth in pig butchering and employment scams is the ongoing 'industrialisation' of the fraud ecosystem, epitomised in the staggering US$375.9 million in cryptocurrency payments made to scam technology vendors on Huione Guarantee in 2024 alone, one of the most prolific marketplaces for illicit tools and services. When comparing crypto flows from 2021 through 2024 based on a compound annual growth rate, Huione scam infrastructure providers' revenue has increased exponentially, with AI service vendors' revenue growing by 1900%, indicating an explosion in the use of AI technology to facilitate scams. These AI vendors offer technology that helps scammers impersonate others or generate realistic content that tricks victims. Through 2024, Chainalysis also tracked nearly US$95million in crypto payments to data vendors on the marketplace. These vendors sell stolen data such as personally identifiable information (PII) that bad actors can exploit for illicit purposes, often with information on 'quick kill' targets i.e. potential victims who are most susceptible to being scammed. 'With easy access to comprehensive victim databases, and AI-powered tools, scammers are better equipped than ever. It's time to move past the outdated notion of scammers as unsophisticated opportunists and recognise fraud as the thriving, highly organised ecosystem it is today. Effectively disrupting and dismantling it will require a coordinated effort from regulators, law enforcement, and the private sector,' added Koven. 'Both fraud detection and compliance rely on granular, real-time data. Efforts to combat scams must focus on both prevention and enforcement, requiring stronger investigative resources and greater enablement of government agencies and local authorities. As scams continue to evolve, investigators need access to deeper intelligence, faster insights, and specialized expertise to detect and disrupt these emerging threats,' Koven concluded. 0 0
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ransomware Payments Fell 35% in 2024 as More Victims Refuse to Pay: Chainalysis
The ransomware business took a hit in 2024, with payments falling 35% year-over-year, according to a new report from Chainalysis. Though the number of ransomware attacks increased in 2024, ransomware gangs made less money, pulling in $814 million compared to 2023's record-high sum of $1.25 billion. The blockchain analytics firm attributes the decline to a variety of factors, including an uptick in law enforcement actions and sanctions, as well as a growing refusal by victims to pay their attackers. Last year, less than half of all recorded ransomware attacks resulted in victim payments. Jacqueline Burns Koven, Chainalysis' head of cyber threat intelligence, told CoinDesk that part of the non-payment trend can be attributed to a growing distrust that complying with attackers' demands will actually result in victims' stolen data being deleted from the attacker's possession. In February 2024, American insurance company United Healthcare paid a $22 million ransom to Russian ransomware gang BlackCat after one of its subsidiaries was breached and patient data exposed. But BlackCat imploded shortly after the ransom was paid, and the data United Healthcare had paid to protect was leaked. Similarly, the takedown of another Russian ransomware gang, LockBit, by U.S. and U.K. law enforcement in early 2024 also revealed that the group did not actually delete victims' data as promised. 'What it illuminated is that payment of a ransom is no guarantee of data deletion,' Koven said. Koven added that, even if ransomware victims wanted to pay, their hands are often tied by international sanctions. 'There's been a spate of sanctions against different ransomware groups and for some entities, it's outside of their risk threshold to be willing to pay them because it constitutes sanctions risk,' Koven said. Chainalysis' report points to one other reason for decreased payments in 2024 – victims are wising up. Lizzie Cookson, senior director of incident response at Coveware, a ransomware incident response firm, told Chainalysis that, due to improved cyber hygiene, many victims are now better able to resist attackers' demands. 'They may ultimately determine that a decryption tool is their best option and negotiate to reduce the final payment, but more often, they find that restoring from recent backups is the faster and more cost-effective path,' Cookson said in the report. Challenges to cashing-out Chainalysis' report also suggests that ransomware attackers are also struggling with cashing-out their ill-gotten gains. The firm found a 'substantial decline' in the use of crypto mixers in 2024, which the report attributed to the 'disruptive impact of sanctions and law enforcement actions, such as those against Chipmixer, Tornado Cash, and Sinbad.' Last year, more ransomware actors simply held their funds in personal wallets, according to the report. 'Curiously, ransomware operators, a primarily financially motivated group, are abstaining from cashing out more than ever," it said. "We attribute this largely to increased caution and uncertainty amid what is probably perceived as law enforcement's unpredictable and decisive actions targeting individuals and services participating in or facilitating ransomware laundering, resulting in insecurity among threat actors about where they can safely put their funds." Looking forward Despite the clear impact of law enforcement's crackdown on ransomware gangs last year, Koven stressed that it's too early to say whether the downward trend is here to stay. 'I think it is premature to be celebrating, because all the factors are there for it to reverse in 2025, for those large attacks — the big game hunting — to resume,' Koven said. You can read the full report here on Chainalysis' blog.
