Imagine the sad faces of thousands and even millions of investors in the cryptocurrency market when the news of a huge amount of digital currency assets has been stolen by hackers during one fiscal year.
It is a reality that many have faced in 2022, where Bitcoin and other related assets worth $3.5 billion were stolen in a given year, according to Digital Information World.
The data is provided by the so-called hacker website Slowmist Hacked and additional data is provided by the named VPN service provider AtlasVPNwhich was confirmed on January 11 this year.
The amount stolen is clearly not worth the many investors who lost a lot of money.
Image: TheNewsCrypto
It goes without saying that the news of the stolen cryptocurrency caused panic and worry among major investors. Meanwhile, critics and detractors alike use the news to their advantage to spend more than cryptocurrency.
Not because of the mistakes of some hackers (the majority of which are still unknown to the authorities), many potential investors and regular investors of the cryptocurrency market are afraid to make more investments.
Who Are The Targets Of The Hack?
According to the same data provided by AtlasVPN, the main targets of the well-known $3.5 billion 2022 infiltration are several blockchain bridges and the entire Binance Smart Chain (BSC) ecosystem.
The former (blockchain bridge) is a tool used by cryptocurrency investors to transfer assets from one block to another, while the latter (BSC) is a well-known blockchain hosting service in the market today.
Basically, hackers targeted the two to gain access to the wallets of thousands, if not millions, of cryptocurrency investors and users who have crypto wallets using blockchain bridges to access their crypto wallets. With ease, hackers steal the safe’s key to gain access to the money in the case.
Image: Digital Information World
Blockchain and Vulnerability
Even the Ethereum network is not safe from such attacks. The loss of the cryptocurrency is estimated to be around $600 million.
The decentralized nature of blockchain is supposed to make assets more secure, but all things considered, digital tokens seem just as vulnerable to hacking as traditional currencies.
1/ After four hacks yesterday, October is now the biggest month of the year for hacking activity, with more than half the month to go. So far this month, $718 million has been stolen from #DeFi protocol through 11 different hacks. pic.twitter.com/emz36f6gpK
— Chainalysis (@chainalysis) October 12, 2022
Crypto total market cap at $928 billion on the weekend chart | Chart: TradingView.com
Even at the beginning of October of that year, the blockchain analysis company Chainalysis predicted that 2022 will be the “biggest year” in terms of the number of cryptocurrency projects affected by attacks and loss of funds.
The number of hacks aimed at blockchain is expected to expand in tandem with its popularity. The attack will strengthen the system by exposing vulnerabilities, but whether blockchain developers can be trusted with users’ money remains to be seen.
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