Crypto investors have been an easy target of cyber fraudsters and hackers. Here are some major crypto scams and hacks that happened in 2021.
The year 2021 recorded the highest number of crypto scams in the last five years. With the outbreak of Covid, people started looking for extra sources of earning and crypto investment became the preferred choice for many. While more investors, including big business tycoons, showed interest in crypto, investors became an easy target of scammers and fraudsters. Read here (rise in crypto scam links)
Even earlier, crypto investors have been easy targets. In 2014, Tokyo-based exchange MtGox collapsed after billions of dollars of Bitcoin went missing, while Coincheck was hacked in a $530 million heist in 2018.
Here are the top crypto scams that happened in 2021.
1. Squid Game Crypto Scam
Based on the popular Netflix series Squid Game, a new crypto coin named Squid was introduced in 2021. Within a week of its launch, it stirred interest among investors and rallied to a peak value of $2,861. But very soon, it dropped to $0 when the creators cashed out the tokens and there was no liquidity left for further trading. It is estimated that the scammers drew around $3.38 million.
2. Crypto Scams By Elon Musk Impersonators
A group of scammers impersonated Tesla CEO Elon Musk and run a scam over a period of six months, reported the Federal Trade Commission. The scammers promoted various schemes that could “multiply” the cryptocurrency that investors spent through them and stole at least $2 million.
3. Faze Saga/SaveTheKids
In June, an e-sports team FaZe Clan members Kay, Teeqo, Jarvis, and Nikan, along with YouTuber RiceGum started promoting a charity-based cryptocurrency called SaveTheKids. The scammers convinced people to invest in this new crypto and assured success as it had connections to the biggest Esports brand on the planet. They also assured that the profit earned will be used for some charity work for children.
After a few days, the token was officially launched and it was found that the initial investors, who held most of the tokens sold their holdings. The crypto tanked soon after its launch.
4. Poly Network Hack
A hacker spotted a flaw in a lesser-known DeFi (decentralised finance) platform called Poly Network and exploiting that bug, he transferred $600 million from the network to his account.
But he was a 'white hat hacker', a hacker who identifies bugs and technical loopholes in a set-up in order to rectify them.
In a few weeks, the hacker returned the complete sum of money to the DeFi platform and received a reward of $500,000 from the Poly Network.
5. Afriscrypt Scam
Two brothers ran a currency exchange service firm namely Afriscrypt in South Africa. They stole cryptos worth nearly $3.6 billion from their investors. They initially claimed that their official website was under cyber attack but the investigating body figured out that they were lying.
6. Japan Crypto Heist
Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Liquid faced a major loss when their domain was attacked by hackers, who stole almost $100 million (£73 million) in August. Soon the company tweeted, “We are sorry to announce that #LiquidGlobal warm wallets were compromised, we are moving assets into the cold wallet.” The maximum amount stolen was from Bitcoin and Ethereum.
7. BitMart Lost $200 million
Hackers stole nearly $200 million worth of cryptocurrency from the popular crypto trading platform BitMart, based out of the UK. The company later confessed that there was a “large-scale security breach” that led to the loss of the customer funds. They assured their customers that they would compensate for the loss.
8. BadgerDAO Lost About $120 Million
BadgerDAO, a decentralised autonomous organisation that primarily focuses on connecting Bitcoins with DeFi applications and building and supporting new Bitcoin-focused products, was also hacked this year, and lost about $120 million, as per the reports of blockchain security and data analytics firm Peckshield.
BadgerDAO had to freeze all smart contracts, digital agreements written in code and stored on the blockchain.