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<p>According to a recent survey by the Ontario Securities Commission, a whopping 7% of Canadian crypto owners <a href="https://www.osc.ca/sites/default/files/2023-12/inv-research_20231129_crypto-asset-survey-2023.pdf">named</a> paying a ransom to a computer hacker as the main reason they used the burgeoning assets in 2023.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The survey shows that 40% of Canadian crypto owners either used crypto to convert it to cash or exchanged it for other crypto assets. Only 18% of them actually used digital assets for buying goods or services. The same percentage of Canadian crypto owners are earning yield from stablecoin lending. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<h2 id="more-findings-from-the-survey">More findings from the survey&nbsp;</h2>
<p>Roughly 36% of Canadians hold less than $1,000 of crypto, which shows that this is still a nascent asset in most portfolios.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Almost half of Canadians (48%) hold their cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange. Notably, only 11% of them use hardware wallets.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Most of the survey participants heard about crypto from their friends, family, colleagues, or social media platform users. Roughly a fifth of Canadian cryptocurrency owners learned about it from the financial press.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The vast majority of Canadians rely on four popular cryptocurrency platforms: Coinbase, Wealthsimple, Binance, and Crypto.com. &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<h2 id="ransom-attack-payments-hitting-record-highs">Ransom attack payments hitting record highs&nbsp;</h2>
<p>According to a recent <a href="https://www.chainalysis.com/blog/ransomware-2024/">report</a> published by Chainalysis, cryptocurrency ransom attacks surged to a whopping $1.1 billion in 2023. The firm described it as a "watershed" year for ransomware due to record-breaking earnings. &nbsp; &nbsp;</p>
<p>The blockchain sleuth discovered that cybercriminals mainly focused on large payments exceeding $1 million. Moreover, bad actors are becoming more and more sophisticated in order to be able to adapt to law enforcement actions. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>The majority of funds from ransomware wallets usually go to no-KYC cryptocurrency exchanges, instances exchangers as well as cryptocurrency mixing services. &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

Some Canadians Buy Crypto Just to Pay Ransoms: Survey

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