Bitrabo Editorial
An analysis by Immunefi shows a rise in crypto theft with hackers stealing over $1.2 billion in digital assets from January to August 2024, a 15.5% increase from the same period in 2023.
Volatile Trend in Crypto Hacks in 2024
As the crypto sector evolves, cybercriminals are becoming more sophisticated in their tactics to exploit user funds. The recent report by Immunefi highlights that $1.2 billion worth of digital assets were lost due to hacks and rug pulls in 2024 so far across 154 incidents.
Compared to January to August 2023, where losses totaled slightly over $1.04 billion, there was a 15.5% surge in crypto theft in 2024 during the same period.
August 2024 reported the lowest losses YTD with $15 million lost across five incidents, in sharp contrast to July 2024 which saw over $269 million stolen. These losses plunged by 94.5% from July, where a notable hack at WazirX led to a $235 million loss.
When analyzing year-over-year data, August 2024 witnessed a 38% decrease in losses compared to August 2023, indicating some improvement in security measures.
Major losses in August 2024 were due to security breaches in projects like Ronin Network and Nexera, totaling $13.5 million. DeFi incidents dominated the losses in August, accounting for all the funds lost during the month.
Urgent Call for Enhanced Security Measures
While there are indications of better security practices within the industry, concerns remain over the substantial amounts of user funds being stolen across various smart contract platforms with differing security levels.
For example, in 2023, Exactly, a DeFi protocol on Ethereum’s layer-2 scaling solution Optimism, lost $12 million in user funds.
In a recent incident, Rho Markets, a DeFi lending protocol on Scroll, an Ethereum layer 2 solution, faced a breach where hackers extracted $7.6 million before returning the assets. This incident highlighted the need for stronger security protocols.