$ 225 million stolen in the unfolding history of the crypto currency

225 million dollars were stolen only for incomplete 8 months of 2017 from those who use the blockbuster crypto currency Ethereum. This conclusion can be drawn from the report Chainalysis - a company that analyzes blocking transactions.

Ethereum is the second most popular crypto currency after bitcoin.

A special technology for collecting funds using the crypto currency - ICO was developed. The technology resembles the placement of securities on the stock exchange. In exchange for bitcoins or Ethereum, depositors receive from the company tokens - a crypto currency, which can be exchanged for the product of the company conducting the ICO.

So that's it. In 2017, investors invested $ 1.6 billion in ICO on Ethereum. Of these, $ 150 million went to fraudsters. Suffered more than 3,000 people. The average loss was $ 7,500.

As writes, knowing the situation of Bloomberg, if you invest in ICO, then with a probability of 10% your money will be stolen.

"Investments in ICO are today one of the most risky, although they will also fabulously enrich some investors," commented Leonid Delitsyn, an expert at Finam. - It's not even that hackers will steal 10% of the invested funds, but the fact that most investors do not give themselves the trouble to study the assets in which they invest. The entrance to the ICO is much simpler than the traditional IPO, the underwriter banks do not meet their reputation for the company, their investment memoranda do not come to investors. Some investors read the so-called "white paper", which is not even a business plan, but rather a concept, a vision of the company's business strategy. ICO is carried out very quickly - for such terms, investors are unlikely to have time to assess the risks associated with the company. Numerous intermediaries are being activated, which formally offer services for a careful analysis of proposals, but in effect are active sellers of tokens. Most of the funds will be lost without the help of scammers - for a reason that in recent times was called. "One of the theft methods that was actively used was phishing.

Reception is quite simple - a site is created, by name, literally one or two letters different from the present, which also allegedly sells tokens (electronic shares of companies). In fact, there is a theft of data from those who have a crypto currency.

Another method is sending out information about ICO of real companies by e-mail and in instant messengers, but data of real owners are replaced by addresses of electronic scams of scammers.

"Investing in ICO is a very risky tool," says Roman Tkachuk, senior analyst at Alpari. - Companies that enter the ICO do not report. And there are no guarantees of return on investment. To some extent, they can be compared with venture projects: 90% can become bankrupt, but 2-3% "shoot" and bring a huge profit. "