- The global cryptocurrency market lost $1.9 Billion from 149 attacks this year, Immunefi’s study claims.
- In Q2 2024, the ETH chain succeeded in surpassing the BNB chain compared to the previous quarter.
- BtcTurk, a Turkish cryptocurrency exchange, lost $55 Million in a hack on June 23, 2024.
2024 is a significant year for crypto, with regulatory green lights and the halving handling of the show. Meanwhile, hackers and a variety of bad actors have not missed the spotlight. Q2 of 2024 saw major losses, especially for centralized finance.
A study by Immunefi shows that the cryptocurrency market lost over $1.9 Billion to 149 hacks, scams, and rug-pulls this year. This is a catastrophic increase of 16.3% compared to the same period last year.
Centralized finance (CeFi) ecosystems lost $636 Million in 6 attacks, while decentralized finance (DeFi) lost $554 Million in 143 events. Immunefi’s report notes that a major amount was wiped out in hacks. Rug-pulls and scams accounted for $3 Million in losses.
Source: Immunefi
The recent security breach of WazirX, which stirred the Asian crypto market, was carried out by Lazarus Group of North Korea, CYFIRMA confirmed. The bad actors wiped out approximately $230 Million. Notably, the attack on WazirX was similar to Bitfinex and Mt. Gox hack.
ETH and BNB Chains Most Attacked
The majority of malicious groups prefer to target the Ethereum chain, where thousands of crypto projects are listed. BNB chain is another popular target, it faced 18 attacks in Q2, 2024. It’s not surprising that these chains are the worst affected, for these are home to most major and upcoming projects.
The Ethereum chain faced 37 attacks in Q2, 2024 losing millions of dollars in cryptocurrencies. In Q2 2024, the ETH chain faced more attacks than the BNB chain.
Major Losses in 2024
Significant crypto losses have been reported so far into 2024. DMM Bitcoin lost $305 Million in a hack on May 31, 2024. A Turkish crypto exchange BtcTurk was attacked by hackers on June 23, 2024, who wiped out $55 Million.
Gala Games a Web3 gaming ecosystem was compromised by some bad actors resulting in a loss of $22 Million. The hackers managed to trade 600 Million Gala tokens for 5,193 ETH, the report notes.
Hedgey was hacked for $44.60 Million, Lykke lost $23.60 Million and Sonne Finance became victim to a $20 Million attack, etc. The in-depth study of blockchain cybersecurity firm Immunefi states that hacks are becoming more common compared to frauds and scams.
The pace of losses from hacks, thefts, scams, and frauds in Q2, 2024 in the DeFi sector declined 25% compared to Q1. Losses in CeFi unprecedentedly grew 984% in Q2, 2024 year-on-year.
Source: Immunefi
Market Updates
As of writing, the global cryptocurrency market capitalization is $2.31 Trillion after a steep 3.18% decline yesterday. Although, the volume has registered a growth of 20.12% intraday.
The intraday gainers list is led by the Akash Network (AKT) token which grew 2.91% to $3.03. Dogwifhat (WIF) one of the most popular memecoins, fell 15.21% to $2.00.
Bitcoin (BTC) the market pioneer lost 2.65% of its price in the past 24 hours, as of writing it was trading at $64,551. As per TradingView, the $70k mark has been a significant resistance level for BTC’s rebound in July.
Ethereum (ETH) lost 4.58% of its trading value in the past 7 days, at the time it is trading at $3,182.
