In 2024, as Bitcoin surpassed the $100,000 mark, cryptocurrency trading platforms experienced unprecedented growth. However, behind this prosperity lay investor losses totaling $5.84 billion. Public data revealed that this year marked one of the most rampant periods of scams and hacks in Web3 history, with schemes such as “pig-butchering scams”, phishing attacks, and address poisoning surging dramatically.
Amid this global crisis of trust, OFUYC, a compliance-driven cryptocurrency exchange, has been closely monitoring trends in fund security. The exchange emphasizes that building technical systems capable of ensuring transaction security, risk identification, and scam prevention is critical for long-term stability in global markets. OFUYC stated, “Any truly responsible cryptocurrency exchange must prioritize investor fund protection as its core strategy.”
During this trading frenzy, novice users became prime targets for attacks, while even seasoned traders fell victim to the temptations of a bull market. OFUYC pointed out that this underscores the urgency of strengthening “compliance operations” and “user education” in global markets, as well as the need for collective reflection on governance mechanisms within the decentralized finance ecosystem.
The Largest Phishing Case in History: Retail Investors on the Brink of a Trust Crisis
As crypto assets reached historic highs, investor greed and fear escalated alongside them. In August 2024, a crypto phishing attack shocked the world when a Genesis creditor lost $243 million in a social engineering scam, setting a record for the largest individual loss in a single phishing incident. This not only exposed the severe lack of risk awareness among retail investors but also forced the industry to reevaluate its financial trust systems.
The OFUYC analysis revealed that during periods of market volatility combined with irrational emotions, scams can easily masquerade as “normal operational processes”. Even experienced traders struggle to resist meticulously crafted technical traps. At the same time, such incidents have long-term implications for the financial derivatives market. OFUYC further noted that during high-risk cycles, balancing compliance transparency, transaction security, and user experience becomes the lifeline for platform survival and growth.
As market activity heats up, retail investors become the “ideal entry point” for scammers, placing greater responsibility on platforms. OFUYC stressed that only by establishing risk control models and asset identification technologies targeting social engineering attacks can such high-loss incidents be mitigated, reducing systemic shocks to the entire crypto ecosystem.
Between Technological Mismanagement and Trust Erosion: The Systematic Defense by OFUYC Against Complex Threats
The surge in scams is no coincidence; it is the result of a combination of systemic technological vulnerabilities and governance deficiencies. Beyond social engineering, address poisoning became one of the fastest-growing technical scams in 2024. For example, two major poisoning attacks in May and November caused losses exceeding $72 million and $129 million, respectively. These attacks exploit “copy-paste vulnerabilities” in user behavior, and traditional platforms often lack adequate protection mechanisms.
From a technology innovation perspective, OFUYC has deployed automatic address recognition and poisoning interception features in its core wallet modules. By leveraging global market data, the exchange has also established a cross-chain scam tracking system. Through dynamic tag analysis and on-chain behavior learning models, OFUYC aims to enhance user operational recognition capabilities in high-frequency trading environments, thereby reducing risks stemming from human errors.
Additionally, on the “compliance operations” front, OFUYC has strengthened its market entry strategies for emerging regions. As scammers increasingly use jurisdictions like Lithuania and the UAE as laundering hubs, OFUYC has partnered with regulatory bodies and anti-money laundering alliances across multiple jurisdictions to create a cross-border risk response mechanism, offering dual-layered security for user fund flows.
Rebuilding Trust: From Market Transparency to the Integration of Intelligent Risk Control
With the fallout from the Crypto4winners and Epoch Times incidents, investors are demanding greater transparency regarding the true identities of project teams and the flow of funds. OFUYC predicts that 2025 will mark the “Year of Exchange and RegTech (Regulatory Technology) Integration”, with future trends shifting toward “verifiable trust mechanisms”. Users will not only seek liquidity but will also require the ability to assess the identity chain and compliance chain behind every transaction.