The month of October so far has already witnessed high rates of crypto-related crimes, estimating losses worth $718 million.
Per data released by research firm Chainalysis on Thursday, the amount from the losses so far has been stolen from several decentralized finance protocols (DeFi protocols). The amount from DeFi protocols has been stolen across eleven separate attacks.
With this high crime rate, October is counted as the worst month for crypto hacks, and the year 2022 is expected to probably exceed 2021 to become the biggest year for crypto hacks.
For the protocols and applications that are not thoroughly audited, they bear easy, quick, and reliable short-term profits. However, in the long run, the poorly protected or implemented protocols serve as bait for hackers and criminals, facilitating the process.
The data reveals that the hackers have already made over $3 billion from 125 hacks in 2022. Market analysts say that irrespective of the current bear market, a lot of activity is being observed from hackers. The hackers are targeting various protocols and even decentralized applications (Dapps).
The attackers in the crypto sector range from exploiting bridges, a tool based on blockchain allowing users transactions between different networks, to manipulating markets where dishonest traders have invested millions of dollars in moving the market in their favour to earn huge profits than they invested.
Attackers gained over $3.2 billion in 2021, but 2022 had a rough start with an exploit worth $325 million of a famous cross-chain service Wormhole, followed by attacks worth $625 million and $200 million on Axie Infinity’s Ronin bridge and Normad bridge, respectively.
From the bridges attacked this month, the attack on a BNB-chain-based bridge has been massive, with gains of over $100 million to attackers, whereas an exploit of the bridge for $566 million. Other significant attacks this week include the ones on the layer-1 blockchain QAN platform on Monday and a $100 million in liquidity withdrawal from Solana’s popular Mango markets trading protocol.