Over $200 Million in Crypto Hacked in 2024

More than $200 million in cryptocurrency has been lost to security breaches and deceptive schemes in the first two months of 2024, with 32 separate incidents reported, according to research published on February 29 by blockchain security company Immunefi.

The losses so far this year mark a 15.4% increase from the same period in 2023, which saw $173 million in digital assets stolen.

In February alone, the cryptocurrency community witnessed the theft of over $67 million through 12 distinct incidents of hacking and fraud, showing a significant reduction of nearly half from January's $133 million in losses.

The largest single loss occurred during an attack on PlayDapp, a blockchain gaming platform, resulting in $32.3 million in stolen funds.

The second-largest was a $26.1 million theft from the decentralized exchange FixedFloat. February's attacks primarily targeted decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms, with no major attacks on centralized finance protocols reported.

Of the total stolen in February, hacks were responsible for $65 million (97.54%) in losses across 10 incidents, while fraud accounted for $1.65 million, or 2.46%.

Ethereum was the most frequently targeted blockchain, followed by the Binance BNB Chain and Bitcoin, with Ethereum facing 12 attacks that comprised over 85% of the year's total losses.

Both the Bitcoin network and the BNB Chain experienced a single incident each.

The cryptocurrency sector continues to grapple with the growing issue of security breaches, particularly within DeFi.

In 2023, losses from hacks and scams totaled $1.8 billion, with 17% attributed to the North Korean Lazarus Group, as reported by Immunefi on December 28.

Mixin Network faced the largest attack in 2023, with losses exceeding $200 million, followed by a $197 million breach at Euler Finance and a $126 million theft from the Multichain cross-chain bridge protocol.

Sources:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/hacked-funds-2024-increased-compared-last-year

https://assets.ctfassets.net/t3wqy70tc3bv/7fdamBHkvZy0Y3zX2Lf5oT/875845ab1bfc912988a571984ff6ff7c/Immunefi_Crypto_Losses_In_Feb_2024.pdf