The previous year has been anticipated to be largely in favor of crypto hackers and scammers, with huge losses throughout the year. Recent data add figures to the total anticipated loss in 2022.
On Friday, Immunefi, a bug bounty and security services platform for the Web3 ecosystem, published a report on the losses incurred in the crypto sector in 2022.
As per the report, the crypto industry lost $3.9 billion in the previous year. Amongst these losses, hacks were found to be the main causes, accounting for 95.6% of the total, and the rest, 4.4%, comprising fraud, scams, and rug pulls.
In addition, the report also pointed out that decentralized finance (DeFi) was the most targeted sector suffering over 80.5% in losses, whereas centralized finance (CeFi) suffered a loss of 19.5%. The losses in DeFi have been an outcome of 155 incidents and mark a 56.2% increase from the past year.
The report stated: “DeFi has suffered $3,180,023,103 in total losses in 2022 across 155 incidents. This number represents a 56.2% increase compared to 2021 when DeFi lost $2,036,015,896 in 107 incidents.”
Further, the report stated that BNB and Ethereum had been the most targeted chains, with BNB Chain surpassing the latter to be the most targeted in 2022, Specifically talking of the fourth of 2022, the industry suffered losses of approximately $1.6 billion, with DeFi being the main target at 57.6% and CeFi at 42.4%.
Michael Amador, the CEO of the security firm, said that to protect the sector and help it grow, the priority must be to identify and address vulnerabilities. In his words:
“By proactively identifying and addressing vulnerabilities, we can protect the community from harm and build trust in the field. As we make the industry safer, everything else can flourish.”
The year 2022 witnessed monthly losses surpassing 2021 concerning investors and regulators. Todayq News reported in October that the rate of hacks in the month had taken the total count for 2022 to $2.98 million as of October 31, nearly double the figures from 2021, where the count was reported to be $1.55 million.
Among the exploits reported in October, the attack on a BNB-chain-based bridge has been the highest, with losses reported worth $586 million, followed by Mango Markets DeFi protocol irrespective of their agreement with the exploiter to return a share of their funds.
Reportedly, the count for December slowed down the pace a bit. As per data, $62 million worth of funds were stolen from decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols. However, cybersecurity experts do not see signs of a decrease in exploits, scams, or flash loans in 2023.