Hedgey Finance Hit by Twin Exploits – Q1 Crypto Thefts Surge to $502 Million, Reveals Report
Summary:
Hedgey Finance, a token infrastructure platform, has faced two simultaneous breaches resulting in a loss of $44.7 million. The breaches involved the theft of $42.8 million Arbitrum (ARB) tokens from the Arbitrum network and $1.9 million in cryptocurrencies from the Ethereum network. The firm collaborating with auditors to identify the weakness that led to the breaches. Meanwhile, fraudulent accounts mimicking Hedgey began posting harmfully deceptive links. The breach happened just before Bitcoin's block issuance rewards were to be halved. In Q1 2024, digital asset thefts surpassed $502 million, marking a 54% hike from Q1 2023. The majority of attacks exploited private key vulnerabilities, and about $77.9 million of the stolen funds were recovered, largely due to the Munchables security incident resolution. In 2023, crypto theft amounted to $1.8 billion, with North Korea's Lazarus Group responsible for 17% of the losses.
The token infrastructure platform, Hedgey Finance, has encountered two simultaneous security breaches which have resulted in the loss of funds totalling $44.7 million. The platform was infiltrated, with $42.8 million in Arbitrum (ARB) tokens on the Arbitrum network being taken, as reported by Cyvers, an on-chain security firm, in an April 19 X post. The perpetrator has already transferred a portion of the stolen funds to Bybit, a cryptocurrency exchange, following an evident weakness in the smart contract.
Additionally, a further loss of $1.9 million in cryptocurrency was identified by Cyvers on the Ethereum network, attributing to the overall hit to Hedgey. Hedgey confirmed the breach and emphasized their continuous cooperation with auditors in order to discern the vulnerability leading up to this probable attack. They advised their users in an April 19 X post to cancel any active claims using the "End Token Claim" button.
Not long after confirming the security lapse, scam accounts imitating Hedgey started publishing potentially damaging links, attempting to persuade users to demand a refund or withdraw their smart contract approvals through dubious sources not related to Hedgey. This all occured preceding Bitcoin's eagerly awaited halving, which will slash block issuance rewards by half.
Throughout the initial quarter of 2024, the Hack3d Report by on-chain security company CertiK illustrated that there were 223 hacks and breaches which led to the theft of more than $502 million in digital assets. When compared to 2023, this equates to a 54% spike in breaches, the sum of that year being $326 million. January stood as an unfortunately profitable month for hackers, plummeting 78 on-chain incidents and more than $193 million in stolen crypto.
The most recurrent mode of attack remains the exploitation of private key vulnerabilities, with losses totalling over $239 million from 26 incidents. However, CertiK also revealed an encouraging statistic: capital recovery stood at $77.9 million in the first quarter, a majority of it accredited to the resolution of the Munchables security incident.
Cryptocurrency theft in 2023 tallied up to a whopping $1.8 billion, with North Korea's Lazarus Group accounting for 17% of the losses, as highlighted in a Dec. 28 report by Immunefi.
Published At
4/19/2024 4:49:16 PM
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