In the first half of 2024, victims of ransomware have paid $459,800,000 to attackers; if ransom payments continue at this pace, this year might establish a new record. Ransomware payments hit a historic high of $1.1 billion last year, as Chainalysis had previously estimated based on data from the first half of the year, when ransomware activity raked in $449,100,000.
Despite massive law enforcement operations that halted large ransomware-as-a-service operations, like LockBit, we are currently about 2% higher than the record-breaking trend from the same period in 2023.
The recent Chainalysis study claims that this growth is the result of ransomware gangs concentrating on collecting large payments by stealing customers' private data and inflicting costly disruptions to major organisations.
"2024 is set to be the highest-grossing year yet for ransomware payments, due in no small part to strains carrying out fewer high-profile attacks, but collecting large payments," reads the Chainalysis report. "2024 has seen the largest ransomware payment ever recorded at approximately $75 million to the Dark Angels ransomware group.”
It is unclear who paid the large $75 million ransom payment, but Zscaler, which identified it, claims it was made by a Fortune 50 company for an attack in early 2024. The typical ransom payment increased significantly from around $199,000 in early 2023 to $1,500,000 in June 2024, indicating that ransomware perpetrators target larger organisations.
The median ransom payment increased significantly from around $199,000 in early 2023 to $1,500,000 in June 2024, indicating that ransomware perpetrators target larger organisations. According to Chainalysis, the number of confirmed ransomware attacks increased by 10% year on year in 2024, while the number of victims displayed on dark web extortion platforms increased similarly.
In terms of how many victims succumb to the threat actors' blackmail and pay the ransom in exchange for a decryptor and a promise not to leak stolen data, Chainalysis reports that the positive trend continues, with fewer organisations falling victim to the extortion.
Chainalysis also estimates that the influx of stolen cryptocurrency has quadrupled year on year, rising from $857 million to $1.58 billion by the end of July 2024. The average value of bitcoin stolen each heist climbed by over 80%, with hackers focussing on centralised exchanges rather than decentralised finance (DeFi) protocols, which had been the target of most attacks in previous years.
Despite these increases in absolute numbers, illegal on-chain activity decreased by 20% compared to 2023, illustrating that authentic cryptocurrency use is rising faster.
