Ransomware operators are on track to break another record this year, if cryptocurrency inflows are any indication, new research claims.
A Chainalysis report says that in the first half of 2024, cryptocurrency inflows reached $460 million, up from $449 million 12 months ago, representing a 2% year-over-year increase.
According to Chainalysis, the largest payment ever recorded occurred this year, when a company paid $75 million to the Dark Angels ransomware group. The average ransom payment to the most severe ransomware strains rose from just under $200,000 in early 2023 to $1.5 million in mid-June 2024.
Dark angels stealing millions
In total, ransomware groups earned more than $1 billion last year and are likely to repeat that success this year as well.
In other words, ransomware operators are making more money from their activity, although the figure is not that simple. With LockBit disrupted and ALPHV virtually non-existent, many active affiliated groups were forced to switch strains, which are often not as effective. At the same time, many groups are opting for “big game hunting,” going after large companies, paying larger sums. This also means that there were fewer victims.
But stealing so much money via the blockchain isn’t exactly a disservice to the industry, Chainalysis stated elsewhere in the report. Aggregate illicit activity on the blockchain is down by nearly a fifth so far this year, meaning legitimate activity is growing rapidly. Unfortunately, cryptocurrency theft is also growing, with inflows of stolen funds nearly doubling, from $857 million last year to $1.58 billion this year.
Finally, the average amount of cryptocurrency stolen per heist increased by almost 80%, mainly due to the meteoric rise of bitcoin this year. At the beginning of 2024, in the first week of January, BTC was trading around $43,906, while today it is around $59,000, which is an increase of 33%. In November 2022, BTC was below $16,000, after which it shot up to almost $74,000 this spring.
