Bad actors are now almost synonymous with the crypto space given the number of scams and hacks that continue to happen every day. So far in 2022, this bad actor has come out on top, beating the record of previous years. With $3 billion already stolen by 2022, he has a ‘productive year.’
Billions of Dollars Moved through Crypto Hacks
A Forbes report details the hacks of 2022 and how much these attackers have been able to steal this year alone. Citing the Chainalysis report, it explains that during the year, hackers stole $3 billion from 125 hacks. The majority of these are just from decentralized finance (DeFi) attacks.
While the crypto industry is still relatively young, the DeFi space is even younger, only coming to prominence only about a year ago. This means that security protocols have not been completed, leaving room for attackers to exploit for personal gain. This is not helped by the fact that the DeFi protocol was quickly pushed out without adequate testing for security measures.
The report details which platforms lost the most from the hack. The alarming fact is that $1.48 billion was lost in just five hacks that year. This includes the Ronin Network that lost $625 million and was linked to North Korean hackers.
Next is Wormhole Network losing $325 million. Another $190 million was stolen when the Nomad bridge was exploited a few months ago, the third largest this year. Coming in fourth and fifth place were the Beanstalk Farms exploit with $182 million and the Wintermute hack which saw the attackers earn $160 million.
Together, these five exploits account for nearly half of all funds lost to hacking this year.
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Binance also saw the action when the bridge connecting BSC and Beacon Chain was exploited. At first, there were reports that hackers had made off with more than $500 million but the exchange was able to recover some of the funds, up to $110 million lost in the hack. However, the centralized exchange itself is not violated.
For centralized exchanges that have been breached, Crypto.com was first with a $35 million hack recorded at the beginning of the year. FTX was next in line about 11 months later when unauthorized transactions on the exchange saw more than $370 million stolen. The US Department of Justice is now reportedly investigating the FTX hack. Fortunately, these are the only hacks for centralized exchanges for years that have more cryptocurrencies than their decentralized counterparts.
With the FTX hack, the amount stolen has surpassed the previous year’s figure of $327 million. This is the fourth highest number after 2014, 2016, and 2018.
Featured images from Forbes, charts from TradingView.com