Crypto Hack Losses Reach Lowest Level in 2024
Losses from crypto scams, exploits, and hacks declined significantly in late 2024, with December recording the lowest amount stolen throughout the year.
Blockchain security firm CertiK reported in a Dec. 31 post on X that December saw $28.6 million in losses from exploits, hacks, and scams, a marked decrease from $63.8 million in November and $115.8 million in October.
Exploits accounted for the majority of the losses, with attackers stealing $26.7 million in December.
The most notable incident involved a $2.1 million exploit targeting decentralized finance (DeFi) platform GemPad, where a vulnerability in its smart contracts allowed an attacker to siphon assets.
The second-largest incident recorded by CertiK occurred with the token bridge of DeFi project FEG.
A hacker exploited a flaw in the FEG crosschain message verification process, draining $1 million by withdrawing tokens from the bridge contract without depositing them in the source chain.
Blockchain security firm PeckShield corroborated similar findings in a Jan. 1 post on X, reporting $24.7 million in hack-related losses for December, reflecting a 71% decline from November.
Among over 25 hacks identified by PeckShield, the most significant was a Dec. 16–17 exploit involving users of the password management service LastPass.
According to onchain evidence provided by Web3 investigator Zachxbt, this hack resulted in $12.3 million in stolen crypto.
LastPass had also suffered a data breach in December 2022, where hackers copied a backup of encrypted customer vault data.
This earlier breach led to ongoing crypto thefts, with cybersecurity reporter Brian Krebs estimating in a September 2023 blog post that over $35 million worth of crypto had been stolen from approximately 150 victims.
In December 2024, another major breach occurred on Dec. 2, when the DeFi market protocol Yei Finance lost around $2.2 million, marking the second-largest incident of the month, as recorded by PeckShield.
According to the Cyvers 2024 Web3 Security Report shared with Cointelegraph on Dec. 24, $2.3 billion worth of crypto was stolen across 165 incidents in 2024.
This figure represents a 40% increase from 2023, when $1.69 billion was stolen, but a 37% decrease from the $3.78 billion stolen in 2022.
Deddy Lavid, co-founder and CEO of Cyvers, told Cointelegraph that the rise in 2024 thefts was likely driven by access control breaches, particularly in centralized exchanges (CEXs) and crypto custodians.
Sources:
https://cointelegraph.com/news/december-lowest-monthly-losses-crypto-exploits-hacks-scams-2024
https://x.com/CertiKAlert/status/1874078211170349061
https://x.com/CertiKAlert/status/1862828939410034879
https://x.com/CertiKAlert/status/1851957328024633734
https://x.com/TheGemPad/status/1870479987591315580
https://x.com/PeckShieldAlert/status/1874427351511036166
https://www.chainabuse.com/report/0ea24e3c-0b02-46f4-bb5d-5196700f0149?context=browse-all
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2023/09/experts-fear-crooks-are-cracking-keys-stolen-in-lastpass-breach/