Cybercriminals stole around $1.7 billion in cryptocurrency in 2023, a new report has revealed.

According to new research from Chainalysis, hackers of cryptocurrency platforms were far less successful than in 2022, with the total amount stolen around 54.3 per cent lower than the prior 12 months.

The research firm however said that the figures are “ lower bound estimates” based on inflows to the illicit addresses that it had identified and that the totals will likely be higher “as we identify more illicit addresses and incorporate their historic activity into our estimates”.

The company noted that despite a reduction in stolen funds, the number of individual hacking incidents grew from 219 to 231.

In terms of geographical origin, the report found that the number of hacks by organisations linked to North Korea rose to a record 20. Groups from the country stole over $1 billion, according to the report.

Regarding the nature of the theft, the report found an increase in romance scam tactics which target individuals and build relationships with them in order to pitch them on fraudulent investing opportunities.

The firm said that these type of scams are underreported, noting “we hypothesise that the true damage of scamming is greater than what reporting to the FBI and our on-chain metrics show, but overall, scamming is down, given broader market dynamics.”

The report also examines rising levels of ransomware and darknet market activity, while transactions with sanctioned entities drove the vast majority of illicit activity.

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