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Remember how the UK Government is cracking down on payment of ransoms by critical infrastructure providers through new laws to make it illegal? Now comes the news that ransomware gangs saw a massive decrease in ransoms received last year. So does this mean that the end of ransomware is in sight?
According to the newly published Chainalysis 2025 Crypto Crime report, ransom payments across 2024 dropped by 35% overall when compared to 2023, down to “just” $813.55 million. That compares to the previous record-breaking total of $1.25 billion.
Although $800 million is still a huge amount, another end-of-year ransomware report revealed that 1,204 organisations had succumbed to attacks, and 4,257 more were claimed by threat actors but without confirmation from the businesses impacted. I’m sure that none of them will be taking much comfort from the fact that ransomware attackers had made a little less money than they had the previous year.
This isn’t stopping Jacqueline Burns Koven, Head of Cyber Threat Intelligence at Chainalysis, from adding a positive spin. “For years now, the cybersecurity landscape seemed hurtling towards a so-called ransomware apocalypse,” said Koven, “so this sharp decline, to levels even lower than those in 2020 and 2021, speaks to the effectiveness of law enforcement actions, improved international collaboration, and a growing refusal by victims to cave into attackers demands.”
There’s no doubt that law enforcement and action from governments around the world are starting to have an impact on threat actors involved in the ransomware business. They’re even reducing attackers’ ability to cash out the crypto made from successful attacks. The sanctioning of Russia-based exchange Cryptex, and the German Federal Criminal Police seizure of 47 Russian language no-KYC crypto exchanges in September 2024, meant the cybercriminals have wallets stuffed with crypto but no way of safely liquidating it.
“Ransomware operators, a primarily financially motivated group, are abstaining from cashing out more than ever,” said Koven said. “This potentially indicates a fear of being traced, identified and prosecuted by law enforcement agencies, made possible with the help of crypto investigation tools such as those provided by Chainalysis.”
However, does this mean that the ransomware threat is over? Betteridge’s Law applies here: if a headline poses a question, the answer is no.
“Whichever combination of factors contributed to the decline, it is likely temporary,” Jon Miller, CEO & Co-founder of Halcyon, concluded. “Ransomware and data extortion attacks are very lucrative and involve almost zero risk for the operators. Many attacks also have the dual purpose of supporting the geopolitical ambitions of nations like Russia. We will not see threat actors abandoning the model any time soon.”
