Pig butchering scams led to $3.6 billion in crypto losses in 2024, emerging as the most significant fraud scheme of the year, according to a report by web3 security firm Cyvers.
The long-term fraud method, where victims are groomed over time to make substantial investments, outpaced other forms of crypto scams in 2024. The report highlighted that $3.6 billion in stolen funds were traced to the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain alone.
Pig butchering on the rise
Cyvers tracked over 150,000 addresses and 800,000 transactions linked to pig butchering scams, illustrating the scale of the problem. The report follows an FBI announcement that estimated $3.96 billion in losses from pig butchering schemes in 2023.
The report also emphasized scammers’ evolving sophistication, noting that many victims were lured through dating apps and social media platforms. Scammers created fake profiles, built trust over weeks or months, and convinced victims to invest in fraudulent crypto platforms that appeared legitimate.
In response to the rise in pig butchering scams, Cyvers recommended increased user education, enhanced wallet security measures, and stricter regulations for crypto platforms. The firm also highlighted the importance of real-time monitoring and advanced threat detection systems to mitigate potential losses.
Cyber threats and recoveries
Cyber threats increased by 40% in 2024, resulting in $2.3 billion in losses across 165 incidents. Despite the surge, overall losses remained 37% lower than in 2022.
Ethereum was the primary target for scammers, with access control breaches driving $1.9 billion in losses across 67 incidents. Smart contract exploits accounted for $456.8 million, while a single address poisoning incident resulted in $68.7 million in stolen funds.
Efforts to combat fraud recovered $1.3 billion this year, thanks to on-chain investigators such as ZachXBT and bug bounty programs.
The year’s first quarter saw the highest number of incidents, with 53 cases recorded. However, the largest financial losses occurred in the third quarter, totaling $760 million.
Significant incidents included a $305 million breach of DMM Exchange due to a compromised private key, a $235 million hack targeting WazirX through a multi-signature wallet vulnerability, and $52 million in losses suffered by BingX after hot wallet exploits.
The Cyvers report indicated that access control incidents comprised 81% of the total losses despite making up only 41.6% of all reported cases.
