The number of attacks in the crypto industry has risen 192% year-over-year from 25 to 73 this past quarter, per research from Immunefi. Despite this hefty rise, the total amount of money lost is actually down by 64.4%—likely due to market conditions. Immunefi assessed the total amount of crypto funds lost by the community due to hacks and scams by reviewing, validating, and classifying publicly available data. They have been conducting similar reports since 2021. Crypto losses fall into two categories in this report: losses that are the result of a contract flaw, known as a hack or exploit; or losses caused by human behavior such as a rug pull, scam, or fraud. Another key insight the study revealed was that the BNB Chain was the prime target for exploits and scams. In fact, Immunefi reports that 73.3% of all rug pulls that the security firm surveyed occurred on the BNB Chain. A rug pull refers to instances when a project raises funds, for example, for a new token or NFT collection, promising certain benefits to users, but then the developers abandon the project and fail to deliver the promised benefits, but retain the buyers’ funds. “BNB Chain still has a serious issue with developers using forked code,” Immunfi’s triaging team lead Adrian Hetman Tech said in the report.
Full report : Number of Crypto Hacks, Scams Jumped 192% Year-Over-Year.
While these are the largest cryptocurrency hacks that have happened in the first quarter of 2023, OODA has been compiling a comprehensive Web3 incident database since cryptocurrency gained acceptance, based on our research to categorize what compromises are taking place as well as document the root causes that plague Cryptos, DeFi, NFTs, and Web3 in general. Tracking root causes provides comprehensive insights into how innovators can create robust cyber risk management approaches and reduce the potential for consequential attacks. You can access the OODA comprehensive Crypto Incident tracker here.
