This tracker lists and ranks the biggest NFT cryptocurrency heists
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have crossed into the realm of popularity where various platforms are ranked, with industry observer Comparitech launching its Worldwide NFT Heists tracker.
NFTs have sold as much as $92 million, but their economic value remains a point of great controversy in the traditional financial, financial technology (fintech), payments and cryptocurrency industries.
Researchers at Comparitech have been tracking NFT thefts for more than two years ever since the first NFT was stolen in early 2020. More than $86 million in NFT value has been stolen since then, according to Comparitech research.
Much like financial threats and security in general, increasing attacks on NFTs boil down to bad actors trying to attack areas where they see the most money flowing. (Example: In December 2021, an NFT called “The Merge” sold for an eye-watering $92 million.)
Rebecca Moody, head of data research at Comparitech, pointed out that the company’s research has been tracking NFT heists since they first became known more than two years ago. Over the past two and a half years, $86 million has been stolen from these sites, with attacks increasing this year – just like cryptocurrency in general. According to Comparitech, the top 10 most significant NFT heists (based on the US dollar amount stolen at the time of the attack) have been:
- Lympo — $18.7 million stolen: Sports-based NFT and Animoca Brands subsidiary Lympo lost 165.2 million LMT tokens in a hot wallet hack. At the time of the attack (January 2022), this equated to $18.7 million and affected 10 wallets.
- Farmers World – $15.7 million stolen: The WAX chain’s crypto game, Farmers World, was stolen in November 2021, resulting in more than 100 million yuan ($15.7 million) in losses. However, some suggest the figure could have reached as much as 300 million yuan.
- Bored Ape Yacht Club — $13.7M Stolen: In April 2022, Bored Ape Yacht Club’s Instagram account was hacked and tens of NFTs were stolen from duped users who connected to their Ethereum wallet. The floor price of these NFTs was equivalent to almost $14 million.
- DragonSB Finance — $10 million stolen: DragonSB Finance, an NFT gaming project, lost $10 million when its earning smart contract was hit by hackers in April 2022.
- OpenSea – $3.4 million stolen: In a February 2022 phishing incident, attackers exploited OpenSea users and stole over 1,200 ETH worth of NFTs (around $3.4 million at the time). In a lucky twist of fate for some victims, the hacker returned some of the unsold NFTs.
- TopGoal — $2.23 million stolen: In February 2022, TopGoal was attacked and over 4.8 million TMT was transferred from the platform’s hot wallet to the hacker’s address. At the time, these tokens were worth just over $2.2 million.
- The Shifters – $2 Million Stolen: Scammed via fake websites and Discord messages, over $2 million was stolen from users during the highly anticipated March 2022 release of The Shifters NFTs.
- Alethea AI – $1.8M Stolen: In a Discord compromise, Alethea AI fans were exploited for 840 ETH, which was worth around $1.8M at the time (March 2022).
- Moonbirds – $1.5 million stolen: In May 2022, 29 Moonbirds NFTs were stolen via a malicious link set up by hackers. These were worth an estimated 750 ETH ($1.5 million).
- Omni – $1.43M Stolen: NFT financial platform, Omni, suffered a flash loan re-entry in July 2022 where hackers stole 1,300 ETH ($1.43M). Omni enables users to stake NFTs across various platforms to receive tokens (e.g. ETH).
