Non-fungible tokens (NFTs), due to their popularity and celeb endorsements, have emerged as a trendy virtual asset category to buy and hold in recent times. However, this digital asset sector is under constant threat from hackers who intend to steal digital collectibles from the expensive, exclusive NFT chain.
Stolen NFT Used In Laundering Cryptos
Market research firm Elliptic has said in a recent report that NFTs worth $100 million have been stolen between July 2021 and July 2022 alone. The report offers a warning for the NFT community to keep its walls high against hackers and scammers.
Criminals related to NFT The theft could have resulted in huge sums of up to $300,000 in each incident. Elliptic notifies its 11.4K followers on Twitter about its conclusions.
In its findings, Ovoid also noted that these stolen NFTs are being used as tools to launder stolen crypto funds. Elliptic said in a statement that since 2017 over $8 million approximately Rs 63 crore of illicit money has been laundered.
NFT-based platforms – representing 0.02 percent of trading activity originating from known sources. does. official blog post. Crypto mixer As such, Tornado Cash has also been used to launder money collected from the resale of stolen NFTs.
according to the report, tornado cash of $137.6 million of crypto-assets was used to be processed by the NFT marketplace.
Bored Apps, Mutant Apps, And CloneX All Victims Of NFTs Scam
Just This Week, Producer SudoRare NFT Marketplace In the classic case of Rag Pul, the platform ceased operations just six hours after launch. Somewhere over $850,000 was reeled in before SudoRare’s Twitter handle was also deactivated.
The Elliptic report mentioned that $24 million in NFTs was stolen through scams in May 2022 alone. Meanwhile, July 2022 has emerged as the month on record for the number of stolen NFTs. Around 4,600 NFTs were stolen last month.
Elliptic says that NFTs lost in the scams include Bored Apps, Mutant Apps, Azuki, Otherside, and Clone. Compromised social media platforms and phishing messages sent to potential victims resulted in 23 percent of NFT thefts.
