Over $46.8 lost due to crypto scam; PH crypto market rises

Crypto phishing scams hugely increased in February 2024, resulting in more than $46.8 million lost over more than 57,000 cases. Most scams were carried out using fake X (previously Twitter) accounts to lure consumers to harmful sites.

Scam Sniffer, a popular all-in-one Web3 antiscam solution, concluded that 78% of the stolen assets came from the Ethereum (ETH) mainnet. At 86% of the total thefts, ERC-20 tokens were the most targeted assets. Most of these losses occurred because victims unwittingly granted permission to harmful phishing signatures like ‘ERC20 Permit’ and ‘increaseAllowance’. 

All of the victim's assets were lost once attackers gained access to their funds through these signatures. The use of account abstraction wallets as token approval spenders was a unique tactic the attackers used. 

This tech opens up new ways for cryptocurrency phishing attacks by adding smart contract compatibility and additional functionality to ETH wallets. 

To lessen panic, the report stated that the total amount of stolen assets in February 2024 was lower compared to January 2024, with fewer victims losing more than $1 million. The reports also raised awareness about how attackers often use social media accounts to spread phishing links.

Many victims lost $440,000 in another high-profile case due to an airdrop fraud that used a compromised MicroStrategy X account. More investigation into these fraudulent acts found that more than 80% of comments on posts by major projects on X were linked with phishing attempts. 

Researchers discovered that con artists were buying X (Twitter) accounts to use in their schemes, mostly on Telegram and aimed at well-known crypto projects. In March 2024, PeckShield, a blockchain security platform, revealed a major phishing scam that cost an unnamed market participant more than $674,000 in USDC. This case further highlights the persistence of this type of fraud.

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Philippines’ crypto market soars as BTC hits new record

The recent surge in Bitcoin's (BTC) value over its 2021 high to $69,000 (₱3.85 million) has sparked a lot of interest in the crypto field in the Philippines. This draws the attention of bigger banks that are keen to get into the industry.

BTC is leading the charge of elevating the crypto market in the country, with the Philippine Digital Asset Exchange (PDAX) reportedly seeing a huge surge in the coin’s activity recently. ‘We’re seeing triple or quadruple the volume these days’, Gaba, a former investment banker who established PDAX in 2018, said.

He also mentioned how BTC is starting to pique the curiosity of major domestic centres in the country. ‘Locally, there are financial institutions who are starting to think about making a small allocation in BTC. This is an insurance company and a couple of family offices’, Gaba added.

Gaba continued that PDAX has over two million users, which is much larger than the biggest stock brokerage institutions in the PH. This highlights the sector's increasing appeal to Filipinos.

Even though there aren't as many big institutions trading on the market as there are on the PH Stock market, he predicted that monthly volumes will exceed $100 million, or over P6 billion. With this, many cryptocurrency users in the PH who play Bitcoin casino games on sites like Gamdom are looking forward to a prospering market in the country in years to come. 

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