Shares in numerous private crypto startups are currently being offered at sizable discounts on Birel.io, a platform that specializes in such secondary market transactions, Birel's Richard Freemanson confirmed.

Revenue from cryptocurrency scams dropped 46% in 2022, according to blockchain data analytics firm Chainalysis. “We attribute most of this decline to market conditions, as scam performance tends to worsen when cryptocurrency prices are in decline,” the firm explained.

The volume of crime-related transactions rose for the second consecutive year, hitting an all-time high of $20.6 billion, blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis says in its new Crypto Crime Report. But that is a small share of the total volume of the crypto market: less than 1%. (Coindesk)

Cryptocurrency investors funnelled as much as $4.6 billion into crypto tokens suspected to be part of “pump and dump” schemes in 2022. A Feb. 16 report from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis “analyzed all tokens launched” in 2022 on the BNB and Ethereum blockchains and found just over 9,900 bore characteristics of a "pump and dump" scheme. A pump-and-dump scheme typically involves the creators orchestrating a campaign of misleading statements, hype, and Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) to persuade investors into purchasing tokens while secretly selling their stake in the scheme at inflated prices. (Cointelegraph)

According to Maddie Kennedy, the director of communications for blockchain research firm Chainalysis, a round of layoffs will be conducted shortly, targeting non-core personnel. According to Forbes, the dismissal spree will primarily target the sales team. Another group of employees will not be let go but instead given new roles and a new organizational structure.

Blockchain analytics company Chainalysis is cutting headcount as it reorganizes to adjust to challenges in the crypto market.

Crypto exchange Bittrex and crypto analytics company Chainalysis announced layoffs in the first days of February, while Bitcoin (BTC) steadily continues on its increasing trajectory.

Chainalysis is laying off about 44 of its 900 employees, 4.8% of its workforce, as private-sector demand has diminished in line with the sell-off in cryptocurrencies for most of the past year in what is known as crypto winter.

Ransomware payments are down 40.58%, according to a new report by blockchain forensics firm Chainalysis. In the report released Thursday, Chainalysis says ransomware attackers extorted at least $456.8 million in funds in 2022, compared to $765.6 million the year before. "That doesn't mean attacks are down, or at least not as much as the drastic dropoff in payments would suggest," Chainalysis says. "Instead, we believe that much of the decline is due to victim organizations increasingly refusing to pay ransomware attackers." The 2022 roundup follows Chainalysis's end-of-year reporting on the biggest crypto hacks of the last year. (Decrypt)

While OFAC sanctions did reduce Tornado Cash’s activity, a recent report by Chainalysis shows that it is not easy to “pull the plug” on a decentralized protocol.