New Report: Crypto Users Lost $19 Billion to Crypto Hacks in 13 Years
Data projections issued by Crystal Intelligence have recently reported that cryptocurrency losses stemming from hack attacks have reached an aggregated $19 billion. The analytics firm noticed that the total amount of loss was recorded to have peaked for the past 13 years.
The firm noticed that the biggest loss was attributed to the Plus Token leading to $2.9 billion in stolen digital assets for the year 2019.
Rise of Hack Attacks
To date, the crypto sector has to deal with a visible spike in hack attacks totaling around $19 billion in the last 13 years. The statistics have revealed that during the last 13 years, hackers stole around $19 billion in cryptocurrencies. This is the time when the first-ever cryptocurrency hack attack becomes public knowledge as per Crystal analysts.
Since the first crypto hack attack PlayDeep suffered from a $290 million hack attack that became the biggest scam incident of February 2024.
Around the same time, authorities in Hong Kong cracked down on the local crypto sector in the aftermath of the local trading platform namely JPEX exchange. This fraudulent exchange scammed its investors for $194.3 million in siphoned cryptocurrencies.
Crypto Hacks Continue to Hinder Trust Among Crypto Investors
Cryptocurrency investors have continued to grow weary of investing in projects that are deemed to be susceptible to exploits and hack attempts. Since the start of the ongoing year, experts have projected a possible increase in cybersecurity incidents for crypto projects in comparison to last year.
The projection is seemingly proving to be in the light of the total number of hack attacks taking place in the first quarter of 2024 responsible for generating a loss of $542.7 million in stolen funds from crypto projects.
This amount of total losses in the first quarter of 2024 is significantly higher in comparison for the same time bracket last year. The highest amount of cryptocurrency hacks reported in 2023 while the year 2022 is known as the most detrimental time in terms of financial losses for the crypto industry as per Crypto Intelligence.
As per the report, around 286 exploits created $2.3 billion in losses in 2022. By the end of 2024, investors suffered $4.3 billion in financial losses.
The analyst at Crystal Intelligence has estimated that the total losses in 2022 have doubled in comparison to the total damages that crypto investors grappled with in 2023. Regardless, it is interesting to note that the total number of crypto hacks dropped by 30% for the former year as per Crystal Intelligence.
The report further indicated that despite the better security measures and reporting systems suspicious activities on blockchain have continued to increase for the last and ongoing year.
Hack Attacks in the DeFi Sector
For 2023, Around 68 security incidents led to $1 billion in stolen digital assets. Meanwhile, the attacks on decentralized finance (DeFi) led to creating an aggregate loss of $835 million in stolen digital assets.
At the same time, thus far around 112 DeFi projects have officially reported cyberattacks. These figures indicate that small-scale attacks have also continued to prevail in the DeFi sector but they take place at a higher frequency.
Euler Finance represents the biggest hack attack incident within the DeFi sector during the last 2 years. The project has stated that a single DeFi hack has created a loss of around $197 million in Euler tokens. Financial losses from the top 10 DeFi hacks taking place in 2023 and 2024 thus far are estimated to be around $579 million in the form of siphoned digital assets.
A latest report indicated that suspicious actors are now targeting crypto projects in the guise of federal agents. The warning has been issued by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
The alert issued by the regulatory watchdog on 12th June has warned crypto investors that scammers are trying to acquire the personal details of crypto investors by assuming names and sand titles of government workers.
