- This year, hackers have stolen billions of dollars in cryptocurrencies.
- Clearly, there are ongoing vulnerabilities and challenges in the DeFi ecosystem.
Hackers continue to steal billions of dollars in cryptocurrencies, and DeFi must pay attention to vulnerabilities and challenges. Another year, hackers have stolen billions of dollars in cryptocurrencies. But for the first time since 2020, the trend has declined.
Hackers have made a fortune in cryptocurrency
Hackers have stolen about $2 billion in cryptocurrency this year through dozens of cyberattacks and thefts, according to De.FI, the web3 security company that runs the REKT database.The site ranked the worst crypto hacks of all time, from the 2022 breach of the Ronin network, where hackers stole more than $600 million in cryptocurrency, the biggest event in history, to this year’s hack of the Mixin network, where hackers netted around $200 million.
“While these amounts are spread across various events, they still highlight ongoing vulnerabilities and challenges in the DeFi ecosystem,” De.Fi wrote in the report shared with TechCrunch. “While the sustained bear market in the first half of the year showed relatively little interest in the space, 2023 still shows continued vulnerabilities and progress in addressing them.”
In early December, blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs also released an estimate of the amount of cryptocurrencies stolen by hackers this year. As of mid-December, the total was about $1.7 billion, according to the company.
Other worst cryptocurrency thefts this year included the hack of Euler Finance, which stole nearly $200 million; And major hacks against hundreds of companies like Multichain($126 million), BonqDAO($120 million), Poloniex($114 million), and Atomic Wallet($100 million).
This is reminiscent of North Korea’s growing cryptocurrency theft spree. According to researchers at cryptocurrency tracking firm chainanalysis, these illicit activities have accumulated more than $340.4 million in 2023 alone, and a staggering $1.65 billion in 2022.
Also read: North Korean Hackers Suspected in Major Cryptocurrency Heists
North Korea was hit hard last year
Last year, blockchain monitoring firm Chainalysis reported that cybercriminals stole about $3.8 billion in cryptocurrencies, a record high. Of that, $1.7 billion was stolen by North Korean government hackers known as the Lazarus Group, one of the most prolific groups of cryptocurrency thieves, which aims to fund the regime’s sanctioned nuclear weapons program.
“It’s no exaggeration to say that cryptocurrency hacking accounts for a significant portion of the U.S. economy,” Chainalysis said in its report last year. According to Chainalysis, in the previous year, hackers stole $3.3 billion in 2021,
Currently, many web3 projects have poor security, but we can be sure that hackers will continue to attack this growing industry.
