Hackers have stolen $2.98 billion via exploits in the crypto industry so far
The cryptocurrency space has lost almost another $2.98 billion DeFi hacks this year — nearly double the $1.55 billion lost in 2021, according to a recent report by blockchain security firm PeckShield.
#PeckShieldAlert ~44 exploits (53 protocols affected) took ~$760.2 million in October 2022, and ~$100 million have already returned the exploited protocols (Total loss: $657.2 million)
As of October 2022, the stolen funds (~$3 billion) in 2022 “doubled” last year’s losses pic.twitter.com/mKZAjVk7UU— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) 31 October 2022
Approximately $760 million was stolen in October through 44 hacks across 53 protocols – making it the worst month for crypto hacks in 2022. Excluding October, hackers stole approximately $428 million during the third quarter.
March was the second worst month of the year, followed by April in terms of money lost in hacks. In total, protocols suffered a combined loss of $1.18 billion due to hacks during these two months.
The worst hacks of 2022
According to the Peckshield report, the worst breach was in October BNB chain exploit that led to hackers stealing 590 million dollars from the network. However, the hacker only made off with approximately $100 million as the BNB Chain was frozen immediately after the news broke – preventing the attacker from moving most assets off-chain.
Another DeFi exploit that made headlines was Violation of the MNGO protocol, where a hacker took a large position in MNGO-PERP and countertraded himself. The perpetrator drained the protocol’s entire liquidity, which amounted to roughly $100 million worth of assets.
The most important exploit of the year was, however, the attack on The Ronin Bridgewhich stood for 625 million dollars of the $710 million hackers stole in March. In terms of funds, the Wormhole bridge exploit was the second largest attack, where a hacker obtained over $320 million in packaged ETH from the Wormhole protocol.
Most of this year’s major attacks have targeted DeFi protocols, which worries crypto enthusiasts, according to one report from Barron’s.
For most of 2019, hackers targeted centralized exchanges. However, over the past 22 months, hackers have stolen approximately $6.7 billion by exploiting DeFi platforms.
