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- According to new data, Eastern Europe continues to be a hotbed of bitcoin cybercrime activity, both from victims of scams and from consumers of darknet markets
- Between July 2020 and June 2021, the study looked at the unlawful share of cryptocurrency activity by region
- When the information was broken down by country, it was discovered that Ukraine was by far the most popular in the region, with significantly more internet traffic to scam websites than any other country
According to new data, Eastern Europe continues to be a hotbed of bitcoin cybercrime activity, both from victims of scams and from consumers of darknet markets. According to a report published on September 1 by blockchain research firm Chainalysis, cryptocurrency addresses based in Eastern Europe have the second-highest exposure to criminal activities behind Africa. Eastern Europe, on the other hand, has a considerably larger crypto-economy than both Africa and Latin America combined (which came in third.) The findings are similar to those of a study conducted last year.
Between July 2020 and June 2021, the study looked at the unlawful share of cryptocurrency activity by region. Over the course of the investigation, it was discovered that crypto addresses and wallets based in Eastern Europe remitted $815 million to scammers and Ponzi schemes. Scams account for the majority of monies moved from Eastern Europe to illicit addresses, as they do in all regions they can conclude that the majority of the activity reflects victims sending money to scammers. Eastern Europe sends more cryptocurrency to darknet markets than other regions, according to Chainalysis. Hydra is a growing Russian-language darknet market that claims to be the largest in the world.
When the information was broken down by country, it was discovered that Ukraine was by far the most popular in the region, with significantly more internet traffic to scam websites than any other country. More than half of the money sent in the region was from a single fraud. Finiko, a Ponzi scheme located in Russia that went under in July 2021, claimed high returns and issued its own cryptocurrency, FNK. Between December 2019 and August 2021, the Finiko scheme received more than $1.5 billion in BTC in over 800,000 distinct contributions, according to the research.
Eastern European addresses have been linked to ransomware, with $46 million transmitted to dubious wallets in the region. Many of the most prolific ransomware variants are related to cybercriminal organizations either based in or affiliated with Russia, according to the analytics firm, which used Evil Corp as an example. Evil Corp requested a $10 million coin ransom to restore access to Garmin’s navigation systems after its network was hacked a year ago.
Andrew is a blockchain developer who developed his interest in cryptocurrencies while pursuing his post-graduation major in blockchain development. He is a keen observer of details and shares his passion for writing, along with coding. His backend knowledge about blockchain helps him give a unique perspective to his writing skills, and a reliable craft at explaining the concepts such as blockchain programming, languages and token minting. He also frequently shares technical details and performance indicators of ICOs and IDOs.
