NPR.

This is the indicator from Planet Money, I'm Stacey Vanix-Smith.

And I'm Patty Hirsch, and I have been glued to the news recently because of this story

about a New York couple who arrested a couple of weeks ago in connection with the theft

of cryptocurrency that could be worth as much as $3.6 billion.

But as you know what I'm talking about, Stacey.

I have heard this, yes.

So the thing that's really wide made by this story isn't the story per se, although I am

fascinated by these characters, Ilya Lichtenstein and his wife Heather Morgan, who by the way

calls herself the crocodile of Wall Street that has this online rap queen alter ego called

Razzlecat.

It's not really these two people that I'm interested in so much as the trend that they've

revealed in the cryptocurrency world where crime is surging right now.

Here's Kim Grower of Tunnelysis, a blockchain research firm.

In 2021, we saw that crypto crime hit all time highs in terms of the total value received

by criminals, which was about $14 billion.

And that is up 80% from the year before.

These numbers are staggering, right?

Theaves are walking away with hundreds of millions worth of cryptocurrency in a single

high.

So on today's show, we're going to ask who these thieves are, how they're stealing this

money, and why we're seeing such a sharp increase in this type of crime.

...