While the global crypto market may have endured a staggering and sustained dip through 2022, it has at least begun to consolidate and rebound during the first half of 2023.
To this end, the global crypto market cap has recently tipped above the $1.16 trillion mark, from a low of less than $1 trillion at the end of last year. So, although this is much lower than the $3 trillion peak achieved in October 2021, the market appears to be recovering from a horrific 12 months or so.
While cryptocurrencies and their underlying blockchains are renowned for offering robust security and anonymity, there remain some vulnerabilities that are of concern when trading tokens or transferring funds. But can a VPN help to trade cryptocurrencies more securely? Let’s find out!
Secure Your Wider Internet Connection
Blockchains use cryptographic public and private keys to help secure transactions, which are unique to each transaction and incredibly difficult to hack.
At the same time, private keys are used to both encrypt and decrypt transaction data, and only accessible to an individual who’s in receipt of payment or tokens.
However, you’ll need to connect to ‘hot’ crypto wallets online, using a Wi-Fi connection that may be accessible to skilled hackers. This increases your level of risk when trading crypto, in a number of different ways too.
Firstly, a cyberthief may establish a rogue but familiar sounding network that imitates a legitimate one. This is achieved simply by copying the signal and SSID, tricking you into connecting and affording hackers direct access to your web traffic.
Third parties and hackers who are active on your network can also use so-called “packet sniffers” to monitor your network traffic. Depending on their level of skill and the software that they use, this may enable them to access and steal your wallet keys without you even knowing.
You can negate this threat simply by connecting your device to a paid VPN. After all, the question “what is a VPN?” could be answered by referencing its ability to secure even public Wi-Fi networks, so using this technology will provide an additional and robust layer of protection when transferring crypto tokens online.
Avoid Phishing Attacks
Phishing is perhaps the single most popular method of online fraud and cybertheft, as it uses emails and faux offers or promotions that encourage you to share sensitive financial information or login details.
Interestingly, crypto phishing attacks comprise 13% of all digital currency scams, creating total asset losses of nearly $9 million through 2018 alone.
While even paid VPNs don’t tend to offer bespoke phishing safeguards, the market leading clients will deploy a detailed blocklist that prevents you from landing on well-known phishing websites.
Many such sites will be crypto-oriented too, so this can provide a much-needed safeguard that protects you even if you’re new to cryptocurrency trading and the market as a whole.
Of course, enabling a VPN on your desktop device or smartphone won’t prevent you from receiving phishing emails or correspondence. So, you’ll need to ensure that your email provider is able to automatically identify and highlight potential spam emails, while also remaining vigilant when reading messages received online.
Keep Your Crypto Trading Activities Completely Private
Crypto trading is synonymous with anonymity, making it ideal for traders who want to keep their activities (and some affiliated purchases) on the down low.
After all, you can open a BTC or crypto wallet without providing your name, corporeal address or other snippets of personal information, and while some may ask you to provide an email address, you can generally create a degree of separation between your crypto activities and existing digital profile.
However, this can be compromised in part by Internet Service Providers (ISPs). The reason for this is simple, as ISPs are able to see your web traffic and how frequently you visit a crypto exchange, even though individual transaction data remains private.
They can also see how much data such activities utilised, and in instances where you’ve chosen to sync multiple wallets or completed multiple trades, they retain the power to throttle your bandwidth and reduce your Internet speeds in order to optimise widespread data usage.
A VPN can help you to avoid this, as it prevents your ISP and other third parties on a particular network from seeing your web traffic or browsing history by encrypting this information.
Just remember to use a paid and premium VPN where possible, as ‘free’ alternatives are known to sell and monetise your data to help create a viable revenue stream.
