Hackers have stolen $119 million in crypto in 19 breaches so far in 2023, Crystal Blockchain says in a new report, which includes data ranging from the Mt. Gox crypto exchange hack in 2011 to Feb. 18, 2023. The blockchain intelligence firm says although DeFi protocols have been hackers’ favorite targets since 2021, they are preying on NFT projects. “The Hash” panel discusses the report and what it reveals about open finance vulnerabilities.
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The biggest DeFi hack so far this year was February’s of Bonq DAO, a decentralized borrowing protocol. Hackers compromised the protocols’ smart contract and manipulated the price of allianceBlock tokens, draining about $88 million of crypto out of the protocol.
The second-largest DeFi-related attack was on the Platypus Finance protocol, which issues the stablecoin USP. A flash loan attack in February led to the stablecoin depegging and a loss of about $9 million in funds by users. However, unlike many similar incidents, this one ended relatively well: The protocol was able to partly refund users and the investigators tracked down the hackers’ wallets to the Binance exchange, found out who they were and arrested two people in France.
The report noted that in the single biggest phishing attack so far this year, non-fungible token (NFT) collector Kevin Rose lost about $1 million worth of NFTs after his personal wallet was compromised in late January.
Also Read: Crypto Hackers Stole Over $3 Billion In 125 Hacks In 2022 Q3.
Most of the attacks have targeted vulnerabilities in the code and design of decentralized protocols, which reflects a larger trend in play since 2021: Decentralized finance (DeFi) has been much more popular among hackers than centralized exchanges (CEX).
DeFi protocols were hacked 13 times more than centralized ones in 2022, according to Crystal. The biggest was an attack on the Ronin cross-chain bridge in March 2022, in which $625 million worth of tokens were stolen.
Last year, $4.17 billion were stolen in 199 incidents, the firm said, a higher estimate than Chainalysis’ data showing $3.8 billion stolen in 2022. With time, as more information about criminal activity emerges, these estimates may grow, Chainalysis said when it released the data in February.
