Comparison of Crypto Heists before and after 2020

Since its inception in 2009, the cryptocurrency sector has experienced its fair share of hacks, robberies and thefts. Hackers find it easier to steal virtual currency than real money because most financial transactions happen virtually. Furthermore, large amounts of cryptocurrency can be transferred anonymously, resulting in significant heists in the crypto sector.

The cryptocurrency industry started to take off in 2020. Before that, the industry saw the participation of a very niche group of people. Also, the value of crypto assets has skyrocketed since 2020. If you compare robberies before and after 2020, you can see a stark difference in the amount of stolen currency.

Cryptocurrency heist before 2020

MT Gox Exchange: MT Gox was once the largest Bitcoin (BTC) exchange. The platform handled almost 70% of all BTC trades. The MT Gox heist remained the largest crypto heist by the number of coins stolen. Furthermore, the robbery took place over three years, from 2011 to 2014, with a loss of over 850k Bitcoin (BTC). The value of BTC is around 480 million dollars. This is the value of Bitcoin (BTC) that was stolen the day before the exchange declared bankruptcy.

Coin check Exchange: Cybercriminals were able to steal more than 500 million NEM tokens from the Japan-based Coincheck exchange in 2018, which were valued at almost their equivalent in dollars. The company claimed its security system was robust and chose not to elaborate on the details of how the attackers carried out the attack. However, other professionals believe that the malware may have allowed cybercriminals to access the private keys of Coincheck hot wallets by infecting a computer at the company’s office.

The hackers also developed a website where they offered a 15% discount on NEM tokens in exchange for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The NEM price fell as a result, and Coincheck suffered a loss of around $500 million.

Linode: Bitcoin exchanges and community whales used Linode, a web hosting company, to store their hot wallets. In June 2011, Linode was hacked and the virtual services that housed the hot wallets were the targets. Unfortunately, this led to the theft of at least 46k BTC, but the exact amount is still unknown. Among the victims were Bitcoinia, which lost approximately 43k BTC, Bitcoin.cx, which lost 3k BTC, and Gavin Andresen (a Bitcoin developer), who also lost 5k BTC.

Heists after 2020

Post-2020 cryptocurrency craze took a turn for the worse as crypto asset values ​​soared. Also, more and more people started getting involved in the new asset class. The number of stolen coins decreased, but the value of the assets increased.

Ronin network: Sky Mavis created the Ronin Network specifically for the play-to-earn game Axie Infinity. An unprecedented $540 million worth of cryptocurrency was stolen from Ronin by unidentified assailants in late March 2022. The Ronin hack remains the largest value stolen in crypto. However, Sky Mavis bounced back from the situation. It rebuilt the blockchain platform in June 2022, and began paying out compensation to affected participants.

Wormhole cross chain bridge: Wormhole is a tool that mediates cryptocurrency transactions. It specifically enables users to transfer tokens between the Solana and Ethereum networks. The open source project Wormhole has its own GitHub repository. The developers uploaded the code before the heist, to fix a protocol vulnerability. However, before the changes took effect, attackers were able to take advantage of the weakness. On February 2, 2022, the protocol wrapped Ethereum (ETH) lost close to $334 million.

KuCoin Exchange: Security personnel at the Singapore-based startup KuCoin saw a series of strange transactions coming from a number of hot wallets on the night of 25-26. September 2020. They moved all remaining assets from the compromised hot wallets to cold storage in order to stop suspicious transactions. The entire attack took place within two hours. The attackers managed to withdraw almost $285 million in various cryptocurrencies during this time.

The cryptocurrency sector has a long way to go in terms of security and regulation. The space has seen billions of dollars gobbled up by illegal players. However, the amount of stolen coins has decreased over time. As more security measures come into effect, the space should see more security for the stored assets.