Number of crypto hacks, scams jumped 192% year-over-year, immunefi reports
The number of attacks in the crypto industry has risen 192% from 25 to 73 from 25 to 73 in the last quarter, per research from Immunefi.
Despite this sharp increase, the total amount lost is actually down 64.4% – likely due to market conditions.
Immunefi assessed the total amount of crypto funds lost by the community due to hacks and fraud by reviewing, validating and classifying publicly available data. They have been conducting similar reports since 2021.
Crypto losses fall into two categories in this report: losses resulting from a contract flaw, known as a hack or exploit; or loss caused by human conduct, such as carpet pulling, fraud or fraud.
Another key insight the study revealed was that BNB chain was the main target for exploits and fraud. In fact, Immunefi reports that 73.3% of all blanket pulls the security firm investigated occurred on the BNB chain.
A rye move refers to instances when a project raises funds, for example for a new token or NFT fundraising, promises certain benefits to users, but then the developers abandon the project and fail to deliver the promised benefits, but keep the buyers’ funds.
“BNB Chain still has a serious problem with developers using forked code,” Immunfi’s triaging team leader Adrian Hetman Tech said in the report. “The community lacks a security first and attracts many users who are looking for a quick way to make money. That’s why we continue to see the largest number of exploits and carpet pulls in this ecosystem.”
Black hat hackers ‘have kept pace’
A total of around $440 million was stolen in Q1 2023, but luckily 40.5% of this was recovered through two specific cases Euler Finance and Sperax USD.
This number is likely higher now that the Euler attacker has officially returned all funds as of April 3rd.
Hacks were the dominant cause of loss at 95.7%, compared to scams, scams and carpetbaggers which only account for 4.3%.
“Projects have increased their security measures through audits and bug bounties over the past year, but black hats have kept pace,” said an Immunefi spokesperson Decrypt by e-mail. “They have educated themselves on industry practices and improved their skills, and it shows in this rise in the number of successful hacks and carpet pulls.”
If black hat hackers evolve along with the general crypto industry, the number of incidents should not increase.
The question then arises: how do the Black Hats win the war?
“In a bear market, blackhats are able to take advantage of projects that begin to deprioritize security in favor of other budget items,” the spokesperson said. “Blackhats only need to be right once in the attack, while developers need to be right at every step of the development process to ensure there isn’t a single loophole. It’s a tough job, and almost an unfair battle.”
