- According to Immunefi, the cryptocurrency market lost an additional $269.4 million in July as a result of fraud and hacks.
- As of July, cryptocurrency losses have topped $1.19 billion for the year, primarily due to WazirX’s $235 million hack.
According to the most recent report from web3 bug bounty and security services platform Immunefi, the cryptocurrency sector has lost over $1.19 billion as a result of 149 hacks and frauds so far this year, with an additional $269.4 million worth of exploits in July.
Comparing the year-to-date total to the same period in 2023, which saw $1.02 billion in losses, reveals a 16.3% increase.
The losses from 14 distinct occurrences in July are the second-highest monthly loss in 2024 after May’s $358 million, representing a 15.9% decline year over year but a 90% spike month over month. The $235 million hack on WazirX, which is thought to have been carried out by North Korean hackers, was the primary source of the majority of the losses. The centralized Indian cryptocurrency exchange faced criticism for their “socialized loss” scheme in the wake of the disaster. The biggest DeFi exploit in July was the DEX aggregation and bridging protocol LI.FI, which resulted in $10 million in losses.
CeFi hacks are common, with the most frequently targeted networks being Ethereum and BNB Chain
When compared to examples of fraud, scams, and rug pulls, which accounted for just 1.1% ($3 million) across two individual incidents, hacks accounted for 98.9% ($266.4 million) of the total losses in July across 12 incidents.
Compared to the $34.4 million lost in 13 DeFi instances, the one and only CeFi attack accounted for 87% of the total amount lost in July, indicating that the WazirX exploit was the primary source of hacking dominance.
CeFi attacks also dominate the $1.19 billion in damages incurred so far this year, accounting for $636 million (53.4%) of the losses from just six occurrences. DeFi includes 143 distinct instances totaling $554 million in losses (46.6%).
As they have been for the majority of 2024, Ethereum and BNB Chain were the most targeted networks once more, accounting for 71.4% of all on-chain losses. With seven occurrences, or 50% of the losses on the targeted chains, Ethereum experienced the most number of individual attacks. BNB Chain came in second with three incidents, or 21.4% of the losses. Base and Scroll each experienced one occurrence.
Immunefi paid out more than $100 million to researchers and ethical hackers last month. Over 3,000 bug bounty submissions led to the three-year rewards, the highest of which was a $10 million award for a vulnerability found in Wormhole’s cross-chain protocol.
With over 45,000 researchers, Immunefi claims to run the largest blockchain security community. It has prevented the theft of over $25 billion in user funds from platforms like Polygon, Optimism, Chainlink, The Graph, Synthetix, and MakerDAO.
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.
