Blockchain Hackers Stole Nearly Half a Billion in Q3 2022
Even though the cryptocurrency market is in a deep slump, cybercriminals are still actively hacking blockchain technologies or launching scams. According to the data analyzed by the Atlas VPN team, blockchain hackers stole $478 million worth of cryptocurrencies.
The Ethereum ecosystem suffered the most significant losses of $348 million over 11 hacks.
The data is based on the numbers provided by Slowmist Hacked, which collects information about disclosed attacks against blockchain projects. Monetary losses were calculated based on the conversion rate of a particular cryptocurrency at the time of a hack or scam event.
The Polkadot ecosystem takes second place on the most significant losses list. The Polkadot crypto projects lost $52 million in just 2 hack events. The ecological project Acala caused an additional issuance of aUSD (Acala Dollar) due to an error on the chain, allowing attackers to mint crypto.
Next is the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) ecosystem, which was hacked 13 times and lost $28 million in crypto. Hackers attacked BSC-related crypto projects more than any other. The most significant loss was suffered in Raccoon Network & Freedom Protocol project, which turned out to be a scam as fraudsters transferred 20 million BUSD to a personal address.
At the same time, the Solana ecosystem lost nearly $6 million worth of crypto in 3 hack events. Blockchain-related hacks caused $5.1 million in losses throughout 4 incidents. Cybercriminals hacked crypto exchanges once and got away with $4.3 million. The Fantom ecosystem also suffered one hack event in which hackers stole $1.7 million.
Meanwhile, non-fungible token (NFT) projects earned scammers nearly $4 million in 7 events. Other crypto-related projects accumulated $28 million worth of crypto losses throughout 9 hacks.
Crypto hacks slow down
While cryptocurrencies live through the bear market, hackers are also less active. However, blockchain hacks and scams remain a significant issue causing millions of losses to crypto projects and investors.
When comparing the third and second quarters of 2022, blockchain hacks fell by 46%, from 96 in Q2 to 52 events in Q3. Numbers from Q3 2021, compared to the same quarter this year, also show a decrease in blockchain incidents of 32%. If cryptocurrencies remain in the bear market, the number of hacks will likely be similar to Q3.
Nonetheless, if we take a look at the first three quarters of 2021 and 2022, this year, blockchain hacks have increased by 37%. They have gone up from 166 incidents last year to 227 in 2022. Over the previous two years, Q2 2022 was the most devastating month, as hackers performed 96 hacks and scams.
Blockchain technology has been a great example of how security principles in financial transactions and information transmission are revolutionizing. Despite that, the technology is still susceptible to cybercriminals who exploit it for their benefit. Many crypto projects get hacked, or scammers set up rug pulls to steal from investors.
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