Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, are increasingly sought by criminals looking to either steal them or use them to launder illicit gains, a new report from blockchain analytics firm Elliptic said on 24 August.

More than $100m worth of these blockchain-based assets were reported stolen in scams over the past year, according to the study. Over 4,600 NFTs were stolen in July, the most in any month since Elliptic began tracking the data in 2017, the report said.