Cybercrime on the Ethereum Blockchain
Research output: Contribution to journal › Research article › Contributed › peer-review
Contributors
Abstract
We examine how cybercrime impacts victims’ risk-taking and returns. The results from our difference-in-differences analysis of a sample of victim and matched non-victim investors on the Ethereum blockchain are in line with prospect theory and suggest that victims increase their long-term total risk-taking after losing part of their wealth, leading to lower risk-adjusted returns in the post-cybercrime period. Victims’ long-term total risk-taking increases because they increase diversifiable risk due to victims’ post-cybercrime withdrawal from altcoins. At the same time, the reduction in risk-adjusted returns correlates with increased trading activity and churn, due plausibly to managing cybercrime exposure. In the cross-section of Ethereum addresses, we show that the most affluent victims take a systematic approach to restore their pre-cybercrime wealth level, while the least affluent victims turn into gamblers. Finally, a parsimonious forensic model explains a good part of the addresses’ probability of being involved in cybercrime, on both the victim and the cybercriminal side.
Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 107419 |
| Number of pages | 25 |
| Journal | Journal of Banking and Finance |
| Volume | 175 (2025) |
| Early online date | 8 Mar 2025 |
| Publication status | Published - Jun 2025 |
| Peer-reviewed | Yes |
External IDs
| ORCID | /0000-0002-0576-7759/work/142239320 |
|---|---|
| unpaywall | 10.1016/j.jbankfin.2025.107419 |
| Scopus | 105001824259 |