Even the criminals have felt the chill of the crypto winter.
Kim Grauer, director of research at Chainalysis, told PYMNTS that the state of crypto-related fraud … depends on where you look.
The interview came against the backdrop where Chainalysis said last month that the money the bad actors made off with from various scams — NFTs and romance schemes for example — was cut roughly in half. The 46% plunge took the tally of scam-related hauls to $5.9 billion.
“Scams are connected to market prices,” she told PYMNTS, “and because we’re in a bear market, scamming trended down.”
And, she noted, “the bread and butter crimes,” she said, “the Darknet marketplaces and fraud shops saw massive declines in 2022.”