A report from Chainalysis has revealed that over $7 billion was stolen in cryptocurrency scams during 2021. This represents an 81% rise from figures in 2020.
According to the report, rug pulls, a type of scam where developers abandon a project and leave with investors’ funds, became the “go-to scam” of the decentralized finance, or DeFi, ecosystem.
In 2021, rug pulls accounted for over $2.8 billion stolen or 37% of all cryptocurrency scam revenue. This is a significant increase compared to 1% in 2020.
Other cryptocurrency news
Senate Banking Committee members voice concern over stablecoins and DeFi
During a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Tuesday, members talked about stablecoins. These are supposedly cryptocurrencies that are meant to be attached to a reserve asset, such as the GBP pound or the US dollar.
The chairman of the committee shared his thoughts in a clear opening statement:
“Let’s be clear about one thing: If you put your money in stablecoins, there’s no guarantee you’re going to get it back,” Sen. Brown said. “Stablecoins and crypto markets aren’t actually an alternative to our banking system. They’re a mirror of the same broken system — with even less accountability and no rules at all.”
Following his statement, Senator Elizabeth Warren agreed saying that, “Stablecoins pose risks to consumers and to our economy,” she tweeted following the hearing.
“They’re propping up one of the shadiest parts of the crypto world, DeFi, where consumers are least protected from getting scammed. Our regulators need to get serious about clamping down before it is too late.”
Elon Musk said that Tesla will accept dogecoin as payment for merch
On Tuesday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted that the tech firm will “make some merch buyable with Doge and see how it goes.”
Following the tweet, the cryptocurrency spiked as much as 23%. Since, the price of dogecoin has levelled, currently trading at around $0.17, according to Coin Metrics.
Musk is a big supporter of dogecoin. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO is invested in it, along with bitcoin and ether, he said in October.
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