- Of the total losses, phishing instances proved to be the most detrimental, amounting to almost $293 million.
- Crypto-related frauds surged in August, with an astounding $310 million lost to various exploits—the second-highest monthly total this year.
A report from blockchain security company CertiK states that the net loss was $300.6 million after $10.3 million of the pilfered assets were eventually found or returned.
The most costly instances were found to be phishing attempts, which accounted for almost $293 million of the overall losses.
Two Phishing Attacks Cause $238 Million in Losses
Two phishing assaults that were especially widespread led to the theft of $55 million in DAI stablecoin and $238 million in Bitcoin.
Aside from phishing, attacks on multiple cryptocurrency projects were among August’s noteworthy losses.
For example, on August 6, a white hat hacker took advantage of the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-based sidechain Ronin Network, stealing 4,000 ETH, which was worth $9.85 million at the time. Furthermore, August saw $1.2 million in losses from flash loan attacks, which is still troubling but somewhat less than in prior months.
Exit scam losses decreased to $800,000 in August from over $3 million in July, a sharp decrease in comparison to the surge in phishing and other forms of exploitation.
According to a recent Chainalysis analysis, there will be fewer illegal bitcoin transactions overall in 2024, despite a rise in some specific categories of criminal activity.
The research, which was released on August 15 as part of the mid-year crypto crime update, discovered that ransomware and hacking attacks were become more common.
There has been an increase in two specific categories: ransomware attacks and monies obtained through hacking.
The total value of cryptocurrency theft at the end of July was $1.58 billion, an 84% rise over the same period in 2023.
The average amount stolen each hack climbed significantly, despite the fact that the number of hacking events only marginally increased (2.8%) over the previous year.
Disclaimer : This article was created for informational purposes only and should not be taken as investment advice. An asset’s past performance does not predict its future returns. Before making an investment, please conduct your own research, as digital assets like cryptocurrencies are highly risky and volatile financial instruments.
