The Wall Street Journal with the report. While my headline to the post is a bit tongue-in-cheek the numbers are seriously large, reported by blockchain analytics firm Elliptic.
Says the Journal piece:
- Nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, are increasingly sought by criminals looking to either steal them or use them to launder illicit gains
- More than $100 million worth of these blockchain-based assets were reported stolen in scams over the past year
- Over 4,600 NFTs were stolen in July, the most in any month since Elliptic began tracking the data in 2017
- over $8 million in proceeds from illicit activities has been laundered through platforms that facilitate the creation, buying and selling of NFTs
- Another $328 million that went through the platforms came from so-called obfuscation services, such as mixers that enable users to exchange cryptocurrencies with relative anonymity, and may also include illegally made money