How Pig Butchering Scams Target Ethereum Investors and Steal Billions in 2024

The Pig Butchering scams turned out to be one of the most prevalent threatss in 2024 stealing around $3.6 billion in assets from crypto investors. In a report published by Cyvers, a Web3 security company, it was revealed that these scams mainly tricked the Ethereum blockchain with 150,000 wallet addresses conned across 800,000 transactions.  

What are Pig Butchering Scams?

Pig Butchering is an extended and very sophisticated fraud in which the criminals build up close relationships with their targets, and persuade them to invest in various fake cryptocurrency platforms. After making these big investments, they vanish, and the gullible investors end up with nothing. 

These schemes include highly targeted investors hence having led to an increase in cyber threats in the crypto industry by 40%  this year.  

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People Aren’t the Only Ones Being Hurt; Firms This Time Suffer From Access Control Hacks

Access control breaches were also to a significant extent behind crypto fraud this year: the share of such incidents was 81% and the financial losses, according to the study. These comprised 41.6% of all the reported cases, but the losses arising from such incidences call for the strengthening of protective modalities against unauthorised access and transfers.  

In another report by Chain analysis, digital currency theft rose to $2.2 billion based on 303 incidents in 2024, from $1.8 billion in 2023; North Korean hackers accounted for $1.34 billion in 2024, which was more than double that of 2023. 

A major shift materialized to centralized applications instead of DeFi systems, including attacks like Japan’s DMM Bitcoin($305m) and Indian WazirX($234.9m). Regarding funds’ redistribution, experienced hackers used mixers and bridges between blockchains for 90% of stolen funds, while the private key’s poor management let the fraudsters steal 43.8% of the money.

The risks are such that they encourage people to adapt to cryptocurrency but also warn them to stay alert, check all the investment offers thoroughly and stay with reliable service providers.