Crypto Funds Theft Soars to $19bn in 13 Years Amidst Spike in Hacks and Exploits
Summary:
Over the past 13 years, the cryptocurrency industry has faced 785 reported hacks, with stolen digital assets reaching a staggering $19 billion. Despite improved security measures, the trend shows no sign of slowing down, with 2024 potentially surpassing 2023 in terms of stolen funds. The bulk of monetary losses in 2023 resulted from security breaches, exceeding the losses from decentralized finance (DeFi) hacks. Still, the frequency of DeFi hacks was notably higher.
In the last 13 years, the world of cryptocurrency has seen 785 instances of hacks and exploitations. Since the first recorded cyber attack on crypto on June 19, 2011 up to now, digital assets worth about $19 billion have been misappropriated, as revealed by a report from Crystal Intelligence distributed to Cointelegraph. The most significant one-off digital currency theft still stands as that of Plus Token in 2019, where $2.9 billion in Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) was illicitly gained. Over the last two years, the highest theft from a single crypto heist was a security breach on PlayDapp in February 2024, resulting in a loss of $290 million. Within the same time frame, the most extensive single fraud scheme related to cryptocurrency was the investment scam of JPEX in Hong Kong, depleting $194.3 million in cryptocurrency. Crypto hacks and scams remain a significant barrier to mainstream adoption and trust in cryptocurrency. The Crystal Intelligence report highlights that 2024 could surpass 2023 in terms of total value of stolen cryptocurrency, given the trend in the first quarter. Despite the highest number of attacks on crypto occurring in 2023, the most significant value loss occurred in 2022, as stated by Crystal Intelligence, with $4.2 billion worth of digital assets stolen, despite the number of incidents being 30% less than that in 2023. According to the same report, digital criminally related activity on the blockchain has continued to increase in 2023 and 2024, regardless of improved methods of monitoring and reporting. In 2023, security breaches led to larger monetary losses compared to decentralized finance (DeFi) hacks, with the former resulting in loss over $1 billion, whereas the latter saw a loss of $835 million. However, DeFi hacks occurred more frequently. In the past two years, the most significant DeFi hack was that on Euler Finance, resulting in a loss of $197 million in Ether tokens. The top ten DeFi hacks between 2023 and 2024 led to an approximate asset loss of $579 million.
Published At
6/12/2024 12:59:00 PM
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