Crypto bull markets have always had several key, linking features and the one prevalent through much of 2024 – despite a few hiccups – has been no different.
For example, Bitcoin (BTC) already reached a new all-time high price near $73,000 earlier in March – and is likely headed for even higher highs as the long-awaited halving event approaches.
Meme coins have also experienced a resurgence with many of the old ones like Pepecoin (PEPE) and Floki Inu (FLOKI) riding close to their peaks.
Projects in the Solana (SOL) ecosystem have been doing particularly well with Bonk (BONK) hitting a new high in March and newcomers like Dogwifhat (WIF) generating rapid rags-to-riches stories.
Unfortunately, another mainstay of cryptocurrency rallies is also back big time – rug pulls.
The most recent example came on April 3 when the team behind a new meme coin – CondomSol – apparently took off with approximately 5,000 SOL tokens worth about $1 million.
The team allegedly disappeared and wiped its account on X shortly before the meme coin was due for launch.
Scams on the rise across the board
As recessionary fears subsided, and the cost-of-living crisis deepened with rising inflation and evaporating pandemic stimulus checks, the number of scams – and funds lost to scams – experienced a massive surge.
A 2023 report published by Lloyds Banking Group (LON: LLOY) warned that there has been a 23% rise in the number of victims throughout the year with younger people being, apparently, particularly vulnerable to the modern fraudster.
The warning also highlighted the prevalence of romance scams – especially of the ‘pig butchering’ variety – and a more recent study made by the cryptocurrency exchange Binance corroborated the report.
According to Binance, romance scams account for approximately 2% of all reported incidents with the average amount of money lost by the victim running as high as $14,000.
AI and deepfake-assisted fraud has also become increasingly popular with criminals posing as journalists in the hopes of drawing sensitive information from unsuspecting people or even creating fake videos of Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of Ripple Labs, to market their scheme.
There have, however, also been notable successes in fighting against scams and fraud with one of the most impressive operations involving a collaborative effort by Binance and the Department of Justice (DoJ) which led to the recovery of approximately $112 million.