Aug 01, 2023 12:25
The amount of money lost through hacks and exploits in
the cryptocurrency sector surged to the highest level year-to-date in July at USD $303 million. The security platform focusing on blockchain
technology, Certik, released an update about the losses today (Monday).
According to the company, the blockchain bridging platform Multichain reported the highest losses, worth USD $125 million, from exploits. Multichain ceased operations in July, and its CEO Zhaojun was reportedly arrested by law enforcement agencies in China.
Losses from Exit Scams
The highest amount lost through attacks on flash loans
was USD $3.2 million on Conic Finance, while the most amount lost
through exit scams was USD $1.9 million on Kannagi Finance. The total losses
year-to-date from exploits, exit scams, and flash loans are USD $580 million,
USD $123 million, and USD $255 million, respectively.
On top of that, the total losses year-to-date due to
hacks and exploits have reached USD 961 million. The amount lost
to exploits is USD $285 million, while that lost to flash loans and exit scams is USD $8.7 million and USD $8.6 million, respectively.
#CertiKStatsAlert ?? Combining all the incidents in July we’ve confirmed ~$303M lost to exploits, hacks and scams. The most lost in a single month in 2023.Exit scams were ~$8.6MFlash loans were ~$8.7M Exploits were ~$285MSee more details below ?? pic.twitter.com/GtdsxsSohc
— CertiK Alert (@CertiKAlert)
July 31, 2023The latest data arrived
when Curve Finance, a decentralized finance platform, is counting losses worth
millions of dollars from an exploit reported last weekend. The
cryptocurrency exchange Huobi confirmed the incident, saying Curve Finance could have lost USD $52 million. The funds are believed to have
been siphoned through a vulnerability in the DeFi platform's smart contract coding language, Vyper.
Hackers Steal over $300M
in Q2
At the beginning of July, Finance
Magnates reported that
hackers stole USD
$313 million in the
second quarter of the year. The amount did not change much compared to USD $320
million lost during the first quarter. The money lost through exit
scams alone doubled to USD $70 million.
Also referred to as a
‘rug pull’, an exit scam is a situation where an individual or a company
creates a cryptocurrency project, promotes it until it achieves a certain
monetary value, and then disappears, leaving investors with worthless tokens.
Besides that, hacks and exploits involve a situation where hackers infiltrate a network and
steal data or digital assets.
This article was written by Jared Kirui at www.financemagnates.com.