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- 1 The final quarter of 2022 saw four times more of these losses.
- 2 CeFi projects may come under this radar more than DeFi protocols.
Hackers and fraudsters were at large in Web3 during 2023. A new report by ImmuneFi, a bug bounty platform, discloses that nearly $2 Billion in worth of cryptocurrencies have been swiped from the market. While only a small portion of the amount can be attributed to fraud, a majority of these funds were funneled by hackers.
Hackers Dominating Fraudsters
A couple of major exploits including Euler Finance and Mixin Network accounted for 22 percent of all the attacks. Combined losses from these exploits reached $397 Million. 94.3 percent of the funds were lost to hacks where Korean attackers Lazarus Group come at the top with $308 Million crypto stolen.
Initially, it appeared that malicious activity was declining between Q1 and Q2 2023, but a sudden surge came in the following quarter, rising from $265 Million to $685 Million. The number declined in Q4 to $414 Million. The final quarter of 2022 saw four times more of these losses with $1.6 Billion stolen from the market.
From a monthly perspective, November saw the highest losses with $343 Million. The latter half of the year witnessed the majority of malicious activity. Apart from November, July and September also beheld bad actors pulling over $300 Million worth of cryptocurrencies in each month.
Centralized finance (CeFi) bore witness to 13 incidents where the sector suffered losses equalling $408 Million. That shows a year-on-year decline of 46.8 percent. Meanwhile decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms were in the crosshairs primarily as bad actors stole $1.3 Billion, a year-on-year decline of 56.1 percent.
Only a fraction of funds have been recovered from 19 specific situations. Euler Finance managed to get most of its lost funds back, recovering $177 Million. Overall, $241 Million in cryptocurrencies were recovered. Other protocols that managed to claw back the lost assets include Atomic Wallet, KyberSwap, SushiSwap, and more.
Although frauds make only a minor chunk of losses, they dominated in May. Where hackers managed to steal just over $20 Million, fraudsters stole nearly $39 Million. None of the months, except for March 2023, reached even $10 Million in fraudulent activities.
“In 2023, despite a reduction in overall losses compared to the previous year, the Web3 sector experienced a substantial surge in hacking attempts and fraud incidents, with the frequency of such cases nearly doubling,” said Mitchell Amador, CEO and Founder at ImmuneFi.
He further adds “Unfortunately, more projects are becoming susceptible to attacks. While decentralized finance remained the primary target of successful exploits, this year marked a significant shift as CeFi began to draw more attention from hacker groups, including the notorious Lazarus”
The report believes next year will see more protocols and projects entering the market. A potential rise in crypto prices may attract more malevolent actors in the sector. Additionally, the report speculates that CeFi projects may come under this radar more than DeFi protocols.
Anurag is working as a fundamental writer for The Coin Republic since 2021. He likes to exercise his curious muscles and research deep into a topic. Though he covers various aspects of the crypto industry, he is quite passionate about the Web3, NFTs, Gaming, and Metaverse, and envisions them as the future of the (digital) economy. A reader & writer at heart, he calls himself an “average guitar player” and a fun footballer.
