Visa, the global payment provider, has recently released a biannual threats report revealing that cryptocurrency thefts hit a new record in 2022, with over $3 billion stolen in on-chain thefts alone. The report highlighted that cryptocurrency bridge services were a favored target for threat actors, with token bridges being the most vulnerable. Fraudsters exploit smart contracts in bridge services to forge new transactions or approve unauthorized ones, leading to a total of $2 billion in losses between January and early October 2022.
The company’s report also mentioned a crypto-focused phishing campaign, which saw threat actors impersonating a crypto exchange company in emails to harvest victims’ account login data. Once the real exchange prompts the threat actor for the two-factor authentication, they would use a spoofed site to prompt the victim to enter their 2FA information, which they would then use to complete the login process.
Despite these alarming figures, Cuy Sheffield, head of product at Visa, reassured the public that the company would continue to partner with crypto firms to improve fiat on and off ramps and build new products that can facilitate stablecoin payments. Sheffield debunked reports of Visa delaying the launch of new partnerships with crypto firms due to high-profile bankruptcies in the industry.
Another report by Immunefi, a bug bounty and security services platform for the Web3 ecosystem, revealed that the crypto industry lost $3.9 billion in 2022. Hacks were the main cause, accounting for 95.6% of the total losses, while the rest, 4.4%, comprised fraud, scams, and rug pulls. Decentralized finance (DeFi) was the most targeted sector, suffering over 80.5% in losses, while centralized finance (CeFi) suffered a loss of 19.5%.
These figures are alarming, and Visa’s report shows that the crypto industry is still vulnerable to attacks. The company emphasized that the vulnerability of bridge services is due to their decentralized nature, which makes them challenging to regulate and secure. Additionally, the report calls for crypto firms to prioritize security measures to prevent future attacks.
Visa’s stance on the crypto industry has been controversial, with many experts criticizing the company’s lack of support for the sector. In February, the Bitcoin market cap flipped the market cap of Visa for the third time in history, with the gap between the two reaching more than $20 billion in favor of BTC. Some believe that Visa’s reluctance to fully embrace the crypto industry has led to its decline in market cap.
Despite this, Visa is not the only payment provider to express concerns about the crypto industry’s security. Mastercard, Visa’s competitor, has also delayed launching new partnerships with crypto firms due to high-profile bankruptcies in the industry. Still, both companies are aware of the potential of cryptocurrencies and are working to develop new products to facilitate stablecoin payments.
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