Pig butchery scams resulted in $3.6 billion in crypto losses in 2024, becoming the largest fraud scheme of the year, according to a report from web security firm Cyvers.
The long-term fraud method, in which victims are groomed over time to make substantial investments, overtook other forms of crypto scams in 2024. The report highlights that $3.6 billion in stolen funds have been allocated to the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain alone.
Pig butchery on the rise
Cyvers has tracked more than 150,000 addresses and 800,000 transactions linked to pig butchery scams, illustrating the scale of the problem. The report follows an FBI announcement estimating losses from hog slaughter programs at $3.96 billion in 2023.
The report also emphasizes the growing sophistication of fraudsters, noting that many victims were lured through dating apps and social media platforms. The fraudsters created fake profiles, built trust over weeks or months, and convinced victims to invest in fraudulent crypto platforms that appeared legitimate.
In response to the increase in pig butchery scams, Cyvers recommended increased user education, stronger security measures for wallets, and stricter regulations for crypto platforms. The company also highlighted the importance of real-time monitoring and advanced threat detection systems to mitigate potential losses.
Cyber threats and recoveries
Cyber threats increased by 40% in 2024, resulting in $2.3 billion in losses across 165 incidents. Despite this sharp increase, overall losses remained 37% lower than in 2022.
Ethereum was the main target for fraudsters, with access control violations resulting in $1.9 billion in losses across 67 incidents. Smart contract exploits accounted for $456.8 million, while a single address poisoning incident resulted in the theft of $68.7 million.
Anti-fraud efforts have recovered $1.3 billion this year, thanks to on-chain investigators like ZachXBT and bug bounty programs.
The first quarter of the year saw the highest number of incidents, with 53 cases recorded. However, the largest financial losses occurred in the third quarter, totaling $760 million.
Significant incidents included a $305 million breach of DMM Exchange due to a compromised private key, a $235 million hack targeting WazirX via a multi-signature wallet vulnerability, and $52 million in losses to BingX after hot wallet exploits.
The Cyvers report states that access control incidents accounted for 81% of total losses, although they only accounted for 41.6% of all reported cases.
